Road To Greatness
by ckman
Summary: The next coming weeks will forever change Clark's life. He will meet someone who will drastically change the course of his life. He will also finally realise his true feelings towards Lois. My first fic ever so please read and review. New CHAPTER IS UP
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Smallville!

Officially known to the population of the world as the Crème Corn Capital of the world, to the residents of this small town however, it is known as the town of the _weird_. Many weird things happen in this town as a result of the meteor show that hit Smallville many years ago; however, what most people don't know is that on the same day a small child fell from the sky, a boy who looked, behaved and was raised in the same manner that any other normal kid would be – he was normal in every way except that Clark Kent was anything but normal.

Only four other people, besides him know that he really is an alien from the planet Krypton! His parents (adoptive parents) Jonathan and Martha Kent, his childhood best friend – Pete Ross, (whom he misses dearly – since Pete moved to Wichita with his mother at the beginning of their senior year as he feared with all the agents breathing down his neck that he may unintentionally reveal Clark's secret to his enemies, and that was something he didn't want to do). Clark has always hidden his secret, especially from the ones he loved, cause of fear that his pursuers might hurt them in order for them to target Clark. Clark still feels very responsible for what happened to Pete, despite Pete and Clark's parents' constant reassurances that it's not his fault. And finally, the only other person that knows about Clark and his true origins is none other than the perky little reporter – Chloe Sullivan who is also currently Clark's best friend.

Over the years, in life in his hometown of Smallville, Clark has seen many unusual and phenomenal things. All caused by the effects of the Meteor rocks from Clark's home planet, otherwise known as Kryptonite to anyone who knows of Clark's true origins. Ironically Kryptonite, which is thus so far Clark's only physical link to his home planet – is his only weakness. Prolonged exposure to Kryptonite can lead to Clark's demise. Kryptonite has also been the source of many abnormal mutations in ordinary humans, giving them unique 'gifts'. However these changes not only had physical attempts on their victims, but a psychological one as well. Since the 'meteor freaks' as they're known in town, were not naturally born with these abilities – they became corrupt or experienced major mental breakdowns causing them to spin extremely out of control. And since these 'freaks' contain abilities beyond that of any mortal man, no one could stop them; that is no – one except for Clark Kent.

Clark has made it his own personal mission to protect the town of Smallville, especially the people he loves from the so called 'freaks'. He feels that he is somewhat responsible that they are what they are today, as none of it would've happened if it weren't for his arrival – on that terrifying day of the '89 meteor shower.

It's been two years since Clark, completed his senior year in high school and for him, life couldn't have been any better. He was finally leading the normal life he had always been dreaming of, the amount of 'meteor freak' activity has subsided, Jor El's calls from the caves and the newly formed _Fortress of Solitude_, have long since been forgotten, he is attending Central Kansas University, where he can stay close to the farm and help his dad out on the farm, his mom was successfully managing the Talon and brought in some very needed extra cash. Clark also had his best friend Chloe to help him with his "super-Clark things" as she called it, making a lot easier for him to help people in need, not that it was happening often lately anyway. And finally, Clark has been dating the girl of his dreams – Lana Lang! Yep, life for Clark was perfect. Yet little does he know that his life is about to get very, very, interesting. The events of the next few weeks will turn his life upside-down, for better and for worse? – One thing is certain however, that the following events will include two old enemies, an unexpected arrival of a new family member, and a very unique bossy, rude, stuck-up, and amazingly beautiful brunette whom he can't stand to be in the same room with for five minutes. None other than Chloe Sullivan's cousin……… Lois Lane!


	2. Chapter 1 Part 1

**Chapter 1**

**Part 1:**

Lois was quickly running to her car, whilst desperately trying to avoid being caught. This was one of the very few moments in her life where she was actually grateful that her father was a three star general in the U.S. Army, and had put her through all those survival courses when she was younger. Thus making a quick retreat to her car seemed to be an easy task to fulfill.

Yet for Lois, this simple act of returning to her car seemed to take a life-time! Why? She wasn't sure. Was it the fact that she was confused? Maybe. She had just heard the two men that she was investigating talk about things such as _'alien'_,_ 'powers'_,_ 'taking over the world'_, and _'signals from the caves and The Arctic'_. Yep, confused was a definite possibility, for her current dilemma. But as much as she'd hate to admit it, she knew the main reason why the dreaded trip back to her car, had taken an eternity was of FEAR!

Not of being caught, after all being the daughter of a three star general has its ups as well as its downs, going through all that survival hand to hand combat training as she grew up enabled Lois to take on even the biggest of enemies, and endure the most excruciating forms of physical torture. Lois knows that that is not what she feared as she remembers overhearing her targets' conversation – only the strongest comments haunted her mind '_capture'_,_ 'experiment'_,_ 'blackmail'_,and_ 'terminate the threat'_. Had Lois only heard those words alone she might have thought nothing of it – the feeling of fear that overcame her made its presence known when her captors kept repeating a name. A name that was all too familiar with Lois. A name of a certain person that she knew all too well (or so she thought). A name that made her realize that, the person being named was in grave danger and she had to warn them.

But why? Why had she felt this great feeling of fear, when she realized that this particular person's life was in danger? She was certain that if she found out that her life was at stake she wouldn't be this petrified, yet for some reason this person's life seemed to be of great value to her. Was it because her recent discoveries had raised some questions that she wanted to ask him? Was it because this person had saved her life on more than one occasion? Was it because that she felt that he was the only other person besides Chloe that she didn't have to push away and made her feel safe? Whatever the reason she had to get to him right away and warn him… she had to warn CLAR KENT!

_Earlier that day – Gotham University Dorm; 6.00 a.m._

Lois was startled, as she woke up to the sound of her cell phone ringing, not to mention extremely pissed off.

"Who the Hell is this?" she demanded.

"Whoa, easy there Lane, this is what I get for trying to give you free info? If this is how …"

"Agh, Bobby it's six in the morning – and I really don't have time for your crap, so you better have something really good for me, or you better make sure that black and blue are amongst your favorite colors 'cause I get the feeling that you'll be wearin' em for a while!" Lois cut in.

"Sheesh, easy there Lane. Ok yeah I got somethin' real good for ya on that project X thing you've been working, the thing with the Luthors… interested?" Bobby asked although already knowing the answer – he just felt like annoying her.

"Well you kinda' woke me up from my beauty sleep, at 6 a.m. I might add, so if I wasn't interested I'd probably be pondering on how I'm gonna get kill you!"

"Yeah, ok, whatever, anyway I don't have any major details but…"

"You don't have any major DETAILS! Then why da hell did you bother to call at…"

"6 a.m. I know, I know, but seriously Lane if you let people finish what there trying to say, instead of assuming that you already know what there gonna say maybe you'd be more satisfied. – Anyway as I was saying I don't have any major details, but all I know is that whatever this project is, it's BIG! By big I mean that both Lex and Lionel are said to be working together on this one. Not only that there also hiring some specialist agent from the CIA. Lane I don't know what the hell is goin on and I know you won't listen to me if I tell you just to drop this story 'cause your one stubborn b! So just be careful. 'Cause one thing I do know is that both Luthors individually have tried to uncover the mysterious of whatever it is they're trying to find out, and have both failed individually. Hell even the FBI tried to once have one of their top agents on this case and he miraculously disappeared. I guess father and son decided that they try to work on this thing together, figuring they'd have better luck together using their combined resources…"

"Ok, Bobby slow down a sec, you've just been rambling for two minutes about Lex, Lionel, the CIA, and FBI – so just give me a sec to sum up everything so far. So an FBI agent disappeared huh? And Lionel and Lex both failed before? Hold it! I thought project X was a weapon, this sounds like they're investigating someone or something."

"From what I hear Lane it's more probably something?"

"WHAT?"

"Yeah apparently the Luthors and Feds believe that there's some kinda' _extraterrestrial _being living amongst us."

"Bobby, I don't have time for your sick jokes, spit out what I wanna hear and don't gimme any of this _extraterrestrial _crap…"

"I'm serious kid, they honestly believe that there's some kinda alien species here on Earth!"

"Okay lets just say stopped listening to all voices of reason and believed what you're saying – so where do our favorite billionaires and most loving Feds believe that this _alien species_ is?"

"SMALLVILLE!"

"Smallville?..."

"Yeah it's this little town in Kansas…"

"I know where Smallville is Bobby, it's where my cousin lives – and I also stayed there a little bit. But what the heck is in Smallville? Other than the meteor freaks!..."

"Whoa, what? What are meteor fr… hey are they those mutants that I've been hearing about? Lane you've actually seen' em ? Man and all this time I thought people had just gotten crazy…"

"BOBBY! Cut the talking-to-self crap and tell more!"

"That's all I have so far Lane, I actually wanted to tell you that you may find the answers your looking for at the Luthorcorp fertilizer plant in Smallville at 8.00 p.m. today!"

"Why? What's hapenin there?

"That's where the Luthors are meeting with the CIA agent, and placing all cards on deck!"

"Any dirt on who this agent is?

"Yeah! From what I hear his name is Cevin Klein, and he is good, real damn good!"

"What d'ya mean by _good_?"

"By good I mean, good enough to sneak past Japan's army into their military base and disable all their defenses. In FIVE MINUTES! By good I mean he's able to some how break into a German sub 50 ft under water, blow it up and make it back to surface without a single scratch. In THREE MINUTES! Lane I know you've dealt with people before, but what I here about this guy is that he's been with the CIA since he was 17, and ever since then he's always taken there most dangerous missions. Some missions the chance that he got out a live was a million-to-one, in his 10 years at the agency this dude is yet to register a scratch. I guess what I'm tryin to say is, be careful Lane; this is like nothing you've ever dealt with before."

"Oh that's sweet, didn't know that you cared!"

"I don't! But you're a very good customer Lane, I gotta look out for my customers – how else am I gonna get fed? Oh 'n by the way, don't think this is a free-be you owe me dinner"

"As long as you're payin, it's a deal!" Lois smiled to herself knowing Bobby's reaction.

"Wait a minute, just because you have the majority of the guys of Gotham University worshipping the floor you walk on, doesn't mean that I'm the same. Having dinner with you is like being in the Lion's den. The only reason I want to have dinner with is because I know how much it pains you to have dinner with me, and how embarrassed you get when your seen in public with me – the look on your face is _priceless _as the master card dude would say… hehe!"

"Fine Bobby dinner it is, after I get back we'll plan something, and if you get anything else let me know ASAP! You got that?

"Sure thing Lane you take care of yourself you here? Cause I don't care if you're dead I'm still gettin my dinner, understood?

"Yeah Bobby, whatever I'll talk to you later – BYE!" and with that Lois hang up the phone. It was know 6.10 a.m. so she decided to wash here face have a shower and head out to Smallville as soon as she could because it was a six hour plus drive, as well as she needed time to think on how she was gonna sneak in and plan her quick get away.

After she'd finished washing up she glanced at her clock and found it to be 7.00 a.m. she wondered if she should tell Chloe that she was on her way to Smallville, she knew that Chloe would be driving back home with Lana today. Lois decided not to in the end because she knew that Chloe had probably want to spend time with her father and she didn't want to disturb, she also knew that if she did that Chloe would probably want to tag along. Chloe, like Lois, had an insatiable desire to uncover the truth about things. Usually Lois wouldn't mind Chloe "tagging along" however after Bobby's warning about this CIA agent Lois didn't want to risk putting Chloe's life in danger; she would never forgive herself if anything happened to her. To Lois, Chloe was more than her little cousin, she was her sister and best friend. She still remembers how torn up she felt when her father told her that she had been supposedly _'killed'_ two years ago, and how she hadn't eaten or slept for the entire first week after she heard the news. And she still remembers how relieved she felt when she found her, alive and well. Well technically she wouldn't have found her at all without the help of a certain farm boy from Smallville.

No Lois knew that she couldn't tell Chloe that she was coming to town, Chloe would insist on going with Lois and it would be too dangerous, she didn't think she'd be able to live with herself is she got hurt again.

Lois then wandered if she should let the Kents know that she was coming. To Lois the Kents were like the perfect family she never had. Next to Chloe they were the closest thing to family she had. Lois decided not to call the Kents because they'd insist on making her rest a little at their house, and she was afraid that she would get too relaxed that she'd miss the meeting. She also knew that Clark would also try to convince her out of going or end up going with her. And she really didn't want Clark to come, despite the fact that he seemed to pull explosions out of a hat when they were needed. Lois couldn't have the annoying farm boy with her, she couldn't stand him.

Instead, Lois decided that she'd head on back to Smallville, see what she can learn from the meeting, and then go to the Kents' place knowing that they'd be more than willing to have her stay with them, once there – she'd call Chloe and fill her in on the details and might as well tell Clark.

So with that in mind, Lois grabbed a few spare sets of clothes and underwear and shoved them in a bag, grabbed her keys and her cell phone and made her way back to the small town she had grown very fond of (although she'd never admit it), Smallville.

Little did she know that this little trip will forever change her life…


	3. Chapter 1 Part 2

**Part Two:**

_That same day – Clark's room, Smallville; 7.30 a.m._

'_Lois get out of there…_

_faster Lois they're gaining on you_

_Hold on Lois I'm almost there…_

_BOOOOOMMMMM!_

_Lois? Lois? Please God no…_

_Lois… why? Why… did you do this for?_

_Lois… Lois?'_

"**LOIS!" **Clark yelled as he awoke hurriedly, startled by the nightmare he had just had. He couldn't remember the exact details of it, as they were just flashes – yet they seemed to be very real, they even felt real. He could have sworn that he could smell the ashes that erupted as a result of the explosion. He wondered what this could mean.

As Clark washed up and got dressed he kept wondering why all of a sudden all these strange things have just started to happen. First with the "presence" he has been feeling for the past week or so and now this nightmare. But what surprises him most is that he felt pain and sorrow at the thought of losing Lois. It was a pain he hadn't felt since the death of Alicia, and even as he remembers the pain that he felt then it doesn't even measure up to what he felt in that nightmare. Why?

And what's up with this strange presence he's been feeling lately? It feels like someone's been watching him, someone that Clark doesn't know yet for some bizarre reason feels awfully familiar. It feels like…

"Clark honey, is everything alright?" his mother asked concerned.

Clark looked at his parents with a startled look.

"Son, is there something bothering you that you would like to tell your mother and I?"

"Umm no not really… actually yeah! There is."

"What is sweetie?"

"For a week or so now I feel like I'm being watched"

"Oh dear…"

"Watched by whom son?" The concern in Jonathan's voice starting to show.

"I don't know dad. I haven't even seen anybody suspicious – but every now and then I get this feeling that somebody I know very well is watching me from behind and when I turn around to see who it is – I don't see anyone and feeling is gone…"

"Who do you think it is Clark?..."

"Do you feel that this unknown person could be a threat?"

"I don't know if he's a threat…

"He?"

"Hold it there Clark you just said that you didn't see who it is. How do you know it's a 'he'?"

"I can feel it. And like I said I don't know if he's a threat – all I do know is that when he's around I feel like someone very close to me is around, like someone I've known since birth is close-by."

"Do you think that Jor-El has found out a way to inhabit a body for himself and know he's here for you, but he's just waiting for the right time to approach you?"

"I thought of that already dad, but I really don't think it's him."

"Why?"

"Well mom, because Jor-El isn't the type of person to just wait for the right time for me, if he wanted me he would have come to me already. Also it didn't feel like Jor-El it felt like someone else. And I'm really starting to get worried…"

With that Clark sat at the table and crossed his arms on it and buried his head in his arms.

"Son I can understand why you may be worried about all this but…"

"But there's something that's bothering you isn't there honey?"

Jonathan looked bewilderedly at his wife when Clark began to speak.

"Yeah there is… This morning I had a nightmare."

"Bad?" both Martha and Jonathan asked in unison.

"It was like the one that I had before second meteor shower hit two years ago. Only this time it was more clear and direct and felt even more real. And this time it was only about… it was only about Lois!"

"Lois?"

"What happened sweetheart?"

"All I saw were different images flashing with Lois running away from someone and I'm running as fast as I can to get to her. Then there's a big explosion and Lois is in my arms and I'm calling to her to wake up and…"

Clark trails off, Martha quickly runs to her son's side.

"What happened next honey?"

"I don't know that's when I woke up screaming her name. Mom, dad this felt like no other dream I ever had it was so real. And what confuses me even more is that I was in so much pain and sorrow just looking at her."

"Well son I know that you and Lois care about each other despite the fact you both are at each other's throat's most of the time but that doesn't mean that you don't care about her. So of course you would've felt some sort of pain at losing her…"

"No dad that's not what I meant, - the pain that I felt when I thought I lost Lois was far worse than the pain I felt when I lost Alicia. Come to think of it I would prefer to relive the pain I felt during Alicia's death for the rest of my life rather than relive that moment for a second. And that's what confuses me… I… I don't even like her… or do I? I don't know what this means…"

"I think I do!" Martha says quietly. Both Jonathan and Clark look up at her surprised.

"What mom?"

"Oh, nothing sweetie don't let it bother you for now. Why don't you get changed and go down to the Talon. Chloe and Lana should be there by now. You shouldn't keep the city dwellers waiting now should you? It'll be okay honey just forget what has happened for now."

With that Martha walks up and gives her son a hug. Clark returns this with a smile, then super-speeds to the Talon after changing. And Martha goes upstairs to get changed for work. Leaving behind a perplexed Jonathan downstairs, and leaving an unknown observer with a small smile on his face after seeing Clark super-speed out of the house.


	4. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

_That same day – The Talon, Smallville; 12.00 p.m._

Clark strolled in through the doors of the Talon - his eyes dancing about the different tables in search of his best friend Chloe Sullivan and the love of his life Lana Lang. He found them. They were sitting at a table to the far right of the room – where they would be least bothered by the many passers by. Clark approached them, slowly! He didn't want to hurry his approach as it would falter his attempts in making the smooth entry he decided to make on his run to the Talon.

"Hi Clark" said Chloe as she jumped from her seat and embraced him.

"It's good to see you too" he replied as he returned her embrace with his own. Chloe then sat down. It was now Lana's turn to exchange greetings with her lover.

"Hey Clark!" she smiled and stuck out her hand.

"Hey." He coolly replied, as he stuck out his hand and they shared a handshake. Chloe, knowing that they did this only out of respect for her – because she gagged every time she saw them pulling off 'their own version of Romeo and Juliet' as she called it. She said

'I think that I'll go get myself a glass of water, so excuse me lovebirds.'

Clark and Lana watched and waited for Chloe to leave and as soon as she was out of view they turned to each other and were caught in a major lip-lock. This kiss was passionate! Full of fire and released tension. They kissed as if they'd been apart for a lifetime neither of them came up for air.

'I missed you so much' Clark managed to slip between their kisses as his hands crawled up her back and onto her face – holding it almost like a baby holds a rattle, as if he would lose her if he let go. He felt himself melting in her embrace as if through their intimate connection he had become one with her.

"Me too" she groaned. Her hands feeling his strong 'farm boy' muscles – and making their way up his abdomen and outlining his chest. Then ever so slowly making her way to feel his well-toned back muscles – before finally sliding her hands to his face. Outlining it with one hand whilst the other rummaging it's way through his hair. She needed physical confirmation that he was really there and not just another figment of her imagination. She too felt herself melting away in his arms as if he had become an extension of her – and she had never felt so right about anything her whole life.

As their kiss continued, it heated up. With each passing moment the fire in their kiss raged ever-more furiously. It wasn't long before they were exploring the insides of their mouths with their tongues. They were both mesmerized in each others arms, timed seemed to have taken a stand still around them, nothing else mattered but themselves…

"You guys comin' up for air anytime soon? Or should I call the Guinness Book of Records to report the world's longest kiss?" Chloe asked sarcastically and smiled as she caused both Clark and Lana to jump up startled and blushing lightly!

"Sorry Chloe" Clark began "It's just been a while since we last saw each other…"

"I know – but if you came to visit as often as you should we wouldn't have had this problem would we Clark?"

"Chloe's right Clark" Lana giggled "If you had come down just a couple of times during the past month 'we wouldn't have had this problem would we Clark?'" She said in her best imitation of Chloe possible. Both Clark and Chloe laughed, and Clark held up both of his hands in defense.

"Hey it's not easy trying to juggle college exams and farm chores! Speaking of exams how'd you girls go?"

"All passes!" exclaimed Chloe.

"Ditto" replied Lana. "And how 'bout you Clark?"

"All passes too" he smiled as he replied.

"That's great!" shrieked Lana as she jumped into his arms.

"Hey Chloe, did Lois mention anything about coming down? Because I want to know exactly when I should start setting my anti-Lois traps in her apartment." Neither of them realized the nervousness in Clark's voice as he said the last part. He couldn't tell them about the nightmare he had it would raise too many questions. And Lana would freak at the thought.

"Lois?" asked a shocked Lana. "Why would she be coming down at all this break?"

"Yeah Clark, her exams aren't till a couple of weeks, after that she's going down to Metropolis for her job interview at The Daily Planet, plus she'll probably be spending a few weeks down there because she absolutely loves the Metropolis City. Then she's back to Gotham for her graduation ceremony. So she probably won't be down here for another couple of weeks or so. Why'd you ask?"

"Oh… um … no, no reason… I just, I just thought that she'd be coming down with you girls… Th that's all."

"So anyway, Clark…" Lana began. All this talk about Lois was making her uncomfortable as she always thought the Lois and Clark were meant to be. "How bout you get us our first round of coffee 'cause I wanna hear all that's happened to you in the past month!"

"Sure, I'll be right back" he smiled as he got up and placed an order.

And for the next eight or so hours – the three friends sat their talking about everything.

Past month's events, good old times and future dreams. All three completely oblivious to the mysterious male figure standing at the entrance of the talon. Whose eyes didn't leave a certain Clark Kent the whole time before departing out the door.

"We will meet again soon, Kal-El! And this time I promise I won't leave you!" he said before slightly bending his knees and shooting off towards the sky… but he never came back down.


	5. Chapter 3

**Chapter: 3**

_LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant Level 3 – Smallville 8:00 p.m._

Lois parked her car as close to the plant as possible without it being seen. She quietly got out of it, and closed the door as silently as she could. From a distance she could see Lex getting out of his car and heading towards the entrance of the building.

'_I need to find a way to get in the plant quickly or I'm gonna miss whatever it is the meeting's about' _she thought to herself. Just then she saw one of the air vents open up miraculously by itself. She smiled as she looked and whispered "Thanks!"

She ran as quickly as possible towards the building and started to climb the 3 – storey high building. This was one of the very few times that she was thankful that her father was a three-star general in the army and had made her complete obstacle courses when she was younger, otherwise she knew she would have never made the monstrous climb. Once she reached the top she took a few breaths to regain her composure before bracing herself for the cramped space and intense heat of the vent. Now the next thing she needed to do was to locate which way Lex was headed. Luckily for her the man of the moment had just appeared turning a corner to the far left. She followed him. As quickly and as quietly as she could, which was extremely difficult as the confined space of the vent had begun to make her lose her breath? She was ever so grateful when he stepped through giant doors and hopped into one of threat large leather seats in front of a large round table. On the table in front of the chair he was sitting at were to large folders that were identical in every manner except one had printed on the cover 'FOR C.K.' Lex grabbed the folder and started flicking through it. Lois made her best possible attempt to make out what was in the folder but all she saw were pages with text on it, and a few photos. One of the photos had a picture of someone who looked remarkably similar to Clark.

She was interrupted from her train of thought when one of the guards walked up to Lex. "Excuse me Mr. Luthor, your father has arrived."

"Send him in" said Lex with an emotionless expression. As Lionel walked in Lex rose to his feet.

"Lex, son. You don't know how happy I am to finally be able to work on this project together as father and son."

"Don't get too excited dad, the only reason I agreed to do this together is because I was getting no where on my own. So if you think that this little project is going to work wonders for our relationship then think again."

The smile that was on Lionel's face disappeared. The two were now locked in an intense stare. _'You could cut the tension with a knife' _thought Lois.

"So where is this agent? I don't like to be kept waiting…" Lex began

"Patience Mr. Lex" All three faces, Lionel, Lex and Lois turned to the direction that the voice came from. There stood a six foot four man whose face was still hidden due to the dark spot he was standing in. He slowly moved forward into the light, revealing himself to the Luthors and Lois. Lois however was unable to get a clear view of his face because of the angle she was at from the vent, however his jaw line did look remarkably similar to that of someone else she knew, so was his voice but who? She didn't know.

"The world's greatest armies were brought to their knees because they moved to soon. Now I am sure you wouldn't want the same to happen to this operation now would you?"

"Agent Cevin Klein I presume…" began Lionel.

"Mr. Lionel, Mr. Lex – nice for me to finally meet you both." Cevin claimed.

"How'd you get in here?" Lex asked skeptically.

Cevin began to look around the room as if searching for something "Through a really technologically advanced device called a door!" he replied matter – of – factly.

'_I'm starting to like this guy already' _thought Lois, who found his sarcastic remark most amusing.

"No, I mean get in here without being detected." Lex continued.

"With all due respect Mr. Lex isn't the reason for you two fine gentlemen wanting to personally hire me, my stealth. If I was detected on my way in or out of here I'm not the man you want now am I?"

"Quite right!" answered a most-impressed Lionel.

"Even though I am enjoying this chit-chat we're having, I have places to be. So what's so urgent and dangerous that _'only my skills can manage such devastating task'_" he said, with the last part of the sentence sounding exactly as if Lionel Luthor had said it himself.

"Quite the imitator aren't you, Agent Klein? But you're right, to business! What we would require for you to do is heavy-level, top secret surveillance!" Lionel stated.

"Surveillance? That's what's so dangerously devastating? You want top quality surveillance get some kid to do it for you. Whoever your investigating will never suspect a thing, and it'll only cost you a buck – don't waste my time! You brought all the way out here from Washington just to tell me to spy on someone. Please!" he said as he began to walk away but was stopped by Lex's voice.

"If our suspicions are correct you're more likely to be investigating a _something _rather than a _someone_."

"Explain!" Cevin said.

"About 20 years ago Smallville was hit by the world's biggest meteor shower to date…"

"I know all about the meteor shower Mr. Lex I read it in the newspaper, and quite frankly don't need a history lesson from you."

"But what the papers didn't say is that on that day a spaceship carrying some sort of extraterrestrial life landed somewhere in Shuster's field, and we believe that this alien has been living amongst us ever since."

"No offense Mr. Lex, but wouldn't this _alien _as you say be little and green. He'd stick out like a sore thumb!" Cevin chuckled.

"I'm sure agent Klein that your work in the CIA has showed you that things aren't always what they appear to be. He looks just the same as we do…"

"He? I thought it was a something, when did it become a 'he'?"

"Like I said it looks just the same as any ordinary male human would, come to think of it he looks remarkably similar to you."

"So this alien looks like me, eh? Well then it's settled I'll find this 'alien' kill him and then it's settled. No one can look like me."

"First I didn't say he looks exactly like you, just similar. And we don't want him killed."

"We just want him analyzed so we can find away to incorporate his genes into our own" continued Lionel. "If we manage to do that, there'd be no need for machines, or cars or public transport – the energy supply of the world would no longer need be as high. People would no longer starve to death as they'd no longer need be fed as much. People would finally be immune to all types of disease; even paralysis…

"Mr. Lionel cut the crap you're trying to tell me…" Cevin interrupted. "Everyone in this room…" he paused and looked at the air vent that Lois was hiding. _'How'd he know that I was here' _she thought. She started to panic but immediately relaxed when she saw that Cevin had given her a quick wink and went on talking… "knows that the only reason that you and your son are interested in this whatever it is because you are more likely to create an army of super soldiers and sell them to the highest bidder. I don't need you to sell me all this nonsense about it's for the good of mankind, I just need you to give me a reason as why I should waste my time on surveillance? In case you haven't read my file I only take cases that no other man can take."

"This is where you come in." began Lex. "You see this alien, if he turns out to be alien, can do unbelievable things. Things you could only dream of. He can bench press farm tractors without breaking a sweat and run virtually at the speed of light as well as he doesn't get sick. I see that you are impressed, does that mean you accept our offer?"

"On one condition… if what you say about this alien is true, then the price of $500 million each would no longer be required… but should this turn out to be a façade… the price is doubled to $1 billion each, do we have an agreement?

Both Lionel and Lex nodded their heads in approval. As Cevin began to walk out Lex called out to him. "I think you'll be needing this!" he said and slid one of the folders he was holding along the table till Cevin stopped it.

"What is it?"

"It's all the information we have gathered over the years, everything ever had on the suspect is in that file" explained Lionel.

"That's ok, I won't be needing it! When I do surveillance work I never go in with presumed knowledge I collect my own info – I'll just need the name of our suspected E.T."

Lex smiled at the attempted humor before answering the question "His name is Kent, Clark Kent!"

Lois let out a breath of disbelief, which caused all three faces to turn in her direction towards the air – vent.

"I think you should tighten your security sirs…" Cevin began causing Lionel and Lex to face him. "You wouldn't want any spies coming in through your air vents!"

Lois began to slowly recede just as Lex and Lionel looked up. No one of the three observers saw Cevin super speed out of the room.

"I'll get right on it!" said Lex – before turning to find that Agent Klein had disappeared just as quickly and mysteriously out of the room as he did in.


	6. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

Lois quickly made her through back out of the air-vents. She didn't care if she did it quietly or not, she had already been discovered – thanks to her big mouth, again.

'_Way to go Lane!' _she thought, _'just for once couldn't you keep your mouth shut? And who was that guy? And how did he know I was in there? It doesn't matter right now I just need to get outta here in one piece so I can warn Smallville!'_

With that in mind Lois moved as faced as humanly possible through the tight air vents. Good thing she had military training otherwise it would have taken her forever to get out. She finally did and managed to divert a large number of security guards by constantly changing directions.

Now all she had to do was focus on getting to her car without being caught, she knew that once she turned on the engine of the car she was home-free.

She crouched behind one of the boulders located in the roof-tops, and scanned the area for any guards. She saw them, yet they still hadn't seen her. There were two. And they were approximately 50 ft away and getting closer. By her calculations, she could slide down the pole quickly and hide behind that truck that was directly under the building.

Lois couldn't remember the last time 5 seconds had felt like a lifetime. It seemed to take an eternity to get down from the building but she finally managed.

She ducked behind the truck and surveyed her surroundings.

'_O Crap', _she muttered to herself, as she saw an extra 4 guards rush out of the building, obviously they were now looking for her.

It was just then that she realized how vigorously her hands and legs were shaken. Well obviously she was afraid – but no to the point where she had to get all hysterical and all.

'_Get a hold of yourself Lane!' _she scolded herself in an attempt to calm her nerves. Yet despite her fear she had this really odd sensation of confusion. What confused Lois more than what she had just heard to her surprise, was why she had this overwhelming sensation of fear. It wasn't fear of her own life she knew that. She knew that if it were just merely her life at stake that she wouldn't be as frightened as she was now. She was panicky because she had just learned information that just might hurt one of her closest friends and his family in danger.

As much as Lois tried to deny it she truly cared for Clark and considered him her best friend, next to Chloe of course that is.

'_Okay Lois, just calm yourself down and try to focus. Your car is 200 ft away parked behind those little trees outside the fence. It isn't that far away – you should consider yourself lucky that they still haven't found it yet, then again the Luthor's body guards weren't really the best and tracking, they were more of the nigh-club bouncer type. Max power almost no-speed whatsoever!_

_Now focus, there are two guards that keep pacing in a horizontal line, blocking your way to the getaway car, all you have to do is just wait and till they cross each other's path and start walking away from each other – causing a sort of red sea thing – then you run like you've never ran before to the car. It's that simple!' _Lois mentally prepared herself for the daunting race to her vehicle.

She waited silently for the right moment…

'_Wait for it… wait for it… A little bit more… Almost… OKAY! They've crossed go NOW!' _she yelled to herself and ran straight through the guards.

It seemed to have worked… **_CRUNCH_**

'_Who the hell leaves a packet of chips out in the middle of nowhere? Oh that's my packet of chips – OOPS!"_

At the sound of the crunch the guards turned to see Lois hurry into the bushes.

"HEY WAIT" yelled one of them.

But Lois didn't of course and fumble with her small purse in search for her keys, yanking them out as hard as she could she opened the door jumped into the driver's seat.

Without even putting on her seat belt, Lois started the car and took off like a crazy woman, almost running the two guards over before they jumped out of the way.

"Oh thank God, that was close… OH O!" looking through her rear view mirror, she spotted two cars in hot pursuit after.

"This is not good… THIS IS NOT GOOD" she kept repeating to herself as she reached the main highway. Normally Lois would never go over 40 mph, however this was no normal situation. She was brought out of her little mental analysis when she realizes that one car's wheel back wheel mysteriously explodes, causing the car to veer off the road.

"_Well that was lucky…" _she smiled briefly to herself before concentrating her thoughts back at the situation at hand. The remaining car was closing in on her and fast. There were no turns in the road for miles.

'_C'mon think Lois, THINK!' _the car had now made it's way up next to hers. However she couldn't see anyone from inside cause of the tinted dark windows. Suddenly the passenger's window slid and Lois saw the barrel of the gun being pointed at her. Before the shot can be fired Lois ducked.

_**BOOM**_

"AAAAGH" she let out a high pitched scream as the car window shattered all over her back.

_**BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM**_

The shots were fired in quick succession. When they stopped coming Lois sat-up straight to see what was happening, and to keep the car straight of course.

It seemed that the man with the gun had run out of bullets. Lois smirked and stuck her tongue out at her assailants. This served to anger them even more as she suspected but never would have guessed what they would do next. They began to attempt ramming Lois' car off the road.

With each thump Lois could feel her control on the car slipping.

_**THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!**_

'_One more ram and I'm gonna be knocked off of the road for sure, OH CRAP HERE IT COMES' _

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Lois let out a ear piercing scream.

A scream that was heard by two people

_Back at the Talon_

Clark, Chloe and Lana were sitting at their table. Chloe was filling in Clark the time where one of the football jock's had tried to pick-up Lana and failed miserably.

"Laannaaa, I can't believe you kicked the poor guy in the…

"GROIN!" both Lana and Chloe answered simultaneously. And all three started laughing even harder.

"Well… he had it coming to him…. I… tried to…. warn him…. that I had eyes… for only… one… man…., but he didn't… listen." Lana managed to choke out along with a stream of laughter.

Clark then reached for her hand under the table and then squeezed it.

"Now if you'll excuse me I need to go get a drink all this excitement has gotten me really flustered!"

"Don't take too long Clark" called after her.

Lana just looked by and smiled warmly at him.

'_He's so cute' _Lana thought to herself.

"So…" Clark began "Chloe how's t.."

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"_ the shriek of Lois' cry pierced Clark's ears with vivid force, casing his hands to shoot straight up to cover his ears.

"Clark, what's wrong?" asked a concerned Chloe.

"It's Lois. She's in trouble!"

"Well Clark what are you waiting for? Go. I'll handle Lana. GO!"

"Right." He said before speeding off leaving Chloe momentarily alone to think of an excuse that Lana would buy.

"Where's Clark?" asked Lana, forcing Chloe at her concentration.

"Clark? O' Clark! Yeah! Um… Clark got a call from his dad. Yeah. His dad needed help fixing a tractor asap so Clark told me to tell you goodbye, then he took off!" Chloe weakly explained or at least tried.

"Okay? Chloe are you sure everything was all right?" asked a confused Lana.

"I hope so!" Chloe whispered to herself as she continued to stare at the entrance of the Talon where Clark had took off in attempt to find Lois. She secretly hoped that this would not be one of the times where Clark would get there five seconds too late.

_Back at the Highway_

The car was pushed off the road, crashing violently into an unseen ditch. The car flipped and turned. Her windshield shattered on impact. Her airbags explode protecting Lois' face and skull from hitting the steering wheel and dashboard with full force. She sees her purse go flying straight through the front of the car where the windshield glass once was. Had she not managed to strap her seatbelt around herself during the pursuit she would have surely followed.

The car continued to fumble and flip. Every collision with the ground forming a new dent in metal of the car. With every thump Lois was rattled some more, like a pin-ball in a pinball machine being whacked about to and fro, like mouse in a cage whose cage was being attacked viciously by a hungry predator.

Lois could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness. With every bang, every whack on the head caused by the impact of the car hitting the hard ground beneath her sapping some more energy out of her, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on but she tried so badly to remain awake, as she could swear she could feel the car begin to slow. It was either that or she had begun to hallucinate.

By the time the car had come to a complete stop Lois was vaguely conscious, and totally oblivious to the oil leaking from her engine outside her upside the down truck.

Her two pursuers tracked down her car. Looking pleased with themselves one of them takes out a match and sparks it alight.

"Nighty-night precious!" he sneered before throwing the match onto the car. As they ran off to their car satisfied with their work, neither realized the blur that was fast approaching their direction.

All they took note of was the **_BOOM _**that was accompanied by the vigorous flames consuming the car.

As the chain-reaction took place, Clark at superhuman speeds made his way to the driver's seat where Lois was and pulled her out as quickly as he can. He managed to shield her from most of the blast, but some pieces of debris slammed Lois in the head causing a severe concussion and lack of breathing.

When the flames died down, Clark took his first real look at Lois and was shocked. She looked exactly the same as in his nightmares the past couple of days.

"Lois?" he began "Lois? Please God no…" hoping for a response

"Lois… why? Why… did you do this for?" he pleaded hoping that somehow his pleading would wake her up. She seemed so fragile so lifeless and totally un-Lois like.

"Lois… Lois?" he was about to scream when he felt a presence behind him. Looking around he was looking up at a person will vary similar features to himself.

"Wh.. Who are you?" Clark tried to mask his fear.

"You need to get her to a hospital quickly" the stranger replied smoothly. "She has a major concussion two broken ribs and some bruises here and there. If you can get her to a hospital she'll be alright but you have to do it now" he explained in all calmness. Seeing that Clark still refused to move the stranger began again "Kal-El…" causing Clark open his eyes in shock at the sound of his Kryptonian name "… you wish to save her, get her to a hospital"

Clark nodded, and turned to scoot up Lois very gently in his arms.

"How'd you…" Clark began but as he turned the man had disappeared as quickly and as swiftly as he appeared "know that name?" he finished to no one. He then looked at Lois and was determined to get her safely to the hospital.

"Just hang on Lois you'll be alright. You have to be!" he said before rushing off for the hospital.


	7. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

Clark was just sitting outside of Lois' room. He had stopped pacing once the doctor came out and told him that she'll be fine and all is going as expected. He replayed the events of the last half and hour back in his head.

"_I NEED HELP" he yelled as he came crashing through the hospital doors, causing a number of nurses and a doctors to come rushing to his side._

"_What happened?" the doctor asked._

"_I… I-I don't know, I m-mean I just found her car leveled, th-then I just b-br-brought her here as fast as I c-could… is she gonna be alright? She has to be…_

"_Well son we cant tell you that until we exactly find out what kind of damage has been done to her…"_

"_She has a severe concussion, two broken ribs on her right-hand side, and a few bruises here and there!"_

"_How do you know this?" the doctor questioned him, shocked that at what Clark had just told her._

"_It doesn't matter how I know, all that matters is that she gets the best medical attention, and you guys have always done that in the past please don't ruin your reputation now!"_

_The doctor studied him for a while trying to figure out if she should trust the information Clark had given her or not._

"_Well in that case we better get her to the medical emergency room immediately" she said with a warm smile. "Okay people let's go we have a patient suffering with major concussion get her to the ER room immediately"_

"_Yes doctor!" one of the nurses replied as they hurried to get Lois' stretcher to the elevator._

"_Doc, is she gonna be alright?" concern evident in the shakiness of his voice._

"_Well since we don't have to waste any time trying to figure out what's wrong with her, the chances of her survival have been boosted exponentially. If you are right and the foremost problem with her is a concussion then the chances of her making it out of here without permanent brain damage is 99. She should be fine but only time will tell."_

"_Thanks doc." Clark said quietly, the information that she had just given him seemed to calm him down a little._

_And with that the doctor turned and followed the nurses up to the emergency room._

_Clark made his way to the waiting area where he called Chloe and his parents and filled them in on what had happened, both promised to make it down there as soon as possible. Whilst he was on the phone with Chloe he heard Lana in the background how he had made it half-way across town in such a short period of time, amongst other things_

"_How in the world did he make it all the way to route 40 in such a short time? It half-way across town! And how did he know that Lois would be there? And why would he lie to me about where he was going?" Lana started asking._

_Clark knew that Lana wasn't going to let this one slide, but he chose not to worry about this for now. Now he had other issues to concern himself with. His main concern being Lois' health and will she be alright?_

_The doctor emerged from the hallway a few minutes after he had finished the phone calls._

"_How is she doc?" he asked, fearing the worst was yet to come._

_The doctor smiled at his concern. "We managed to stabilize her and prevent from any more damage being caused, she'll remain in the ER for at least another week or so, but bottom line is she's going to make a full recovery. She's very lucky that you brought her here so quickly and that you knew exactly what was wrong with her… I'm not going to ask you how, I'm just grateful that you did." With that the doctor smiled and turned._

Clark was relieved when the doctor had gave him the good news. Lois was going to be fine. He hated to admit but the odd 30 minutes or so she was in the ER having the doctors work on her were amongst the most painful times in his life. He guessed it was because he cared for her a lot more than he would admit.

But thankfully the worst was over and Lois was going to make a full recovery. Still Clark had another thing that was bugging him.

'_Who was that guy out in the field? And how did he know my Kryptonian name? And why do I get this feeling of familiarity around him? I…' _Clark's mind began to wonder when he was abruptly shaken from his thoughts by the voice of his very concerned mother.

"Clark!" she shrieked as she and Jonathan run up to their son, concern clearly shown in their faces. "How is she?" she asked.

"She's fine mom. The doctor said that she'll make a complete recovery, it'll just take time though. But everything is going to be ok." Clark answered with a slight smile as he and his parents all took a seat on the couch.

"Um… mum, dad there's something else that happened. I-uh – I met the guy who I kept feeling his presence around." He stated nervously.

"You met him? Where?" his mother asked.

"Right after, I pulled Lois out from the car, he was the one that told me what was wrong with her and that I should get her to the hospital quickly!" Clark replied

"Okay, so how'd he know what was wrong with Lois? And did you notice anything about him son?"

"Just that he looked a lot like I do."

"Anything else?"

Clark looked at his father curiously. "He's not a threat to me if that's what you mean, dad." He stated matter of factly.

"Now, Clark how could you possibly know th-" Jonathan was cut, off by the sound of his cell phone ringing. He takes it out and looks at the screen to see who it was. "It's Mike." he informs both Clark and Martha.

Mike was Jonathan's new chief – of – staff who he had hired after Lois had decided that she wanted to get reinstated into college and pursue a career in journalism. Whilst Jonathan and Martha were happy for her, Jonathan has regretted him losing such a valuable asset to his campaign. He knew as well as all his other members of staff, that Lois Lane was simply irreplaceable. And whilst Mike was good he simply wasn't, Lois.

"What is this time, Mike?" he inquired, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "NO! You tell senator Wilkins, that I will not back down just because some of our supporters do not like the idea of me spending so much time and effort on the children." He pauses listening to what Mike has to say.

"No Mike I don't care, you listen to me, tell the good senator that – actually don't worry about it I'm coming down there, and talk to him for myself.

"What I wouldn't give to have Lois back on the staff list!" Jonathan muttered to himself. "Sorry sweetheart, looks like I'm going to have to go into the office today after all, rain check for dinner?"

"Of course!" Martha replied happily.

"Now son we'll finish this when I get back, but just a quick question how do you know he's not just another one of those creatures who were released from the phantom zone like you?"

"Well I can't say for sure, when I find Raya, I'm sure she cant tell me who he is. But I'm pretty certain he's not someone I should fear, and that I'll be seeing a lot of him in the near future." Clark replied.

"Well we'll just have to wait and see, look after your mother and send my regards to Lois?"

"Sure dad!"

And with that, Jonathan Kent took off, exchanging quick greetings to both Chloe and Lana.

"Clark!" Chloe shrieked, she looked scared to death. Who could blame her, Lois has her only family other than her dad that she was close to. She was more than just cousins, both Lois and Chloe both considered the other as a sister and best friend simultaneously.

"What happened?" Lana butted in.

"I don't know. I found her car tilted over and I managed to pull her away from the explosion before it consumed us both. Then I rushed her over here as soon as I could." Clark answered.

"What were you doing at route 40 anyway Clark? And how did you get there and then to the hospital in such a short time?" Lana persisted.

"So, how is she?" Chloe quickly jumped in, as to save Clark from Lana's impending questions.

At this point Martha Kent thought it would be best to make her presence known in an attempt to calm the ever building tension in the room. "She's going to be fine, the doctor said she should just rest here for a week, but other than that she's going to make a full recovery." Chloe let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank God!" she uttered.

"Lana dear," Martha said as she turned to face the raven haired girl "Could you go and fetch me a cup of water, my throat's feeling a little dry, and I want to say something to Clark before I head off; and I think Chloe's too shaken up to do anything. Please dear?"

"Sure thing Mrs. Kent" Lana answered politely before walking off.

Turning to face Clark, Martha began "Clark this is getting ridiculous, you can't always expect Chloe or your father and I, to keep covering up for you. You need to tell Lana. If you want to pursue this relationship any further you need to come clean with her. I know your father and I have always warned you about limiting the number of people who know who you really are, but sweetie you are seriously fooling yourself if you think you can keep this up. You need to tell her, otherwise you may just be the one who ends up pushing her completely out of your life."

"I know mom, I know. It's just that I've been busy lately, with trying to remove as much of the rubble in Metropolis as possible after what happened on dark Thursday, and trying to track and stop all the people who escaped from the Phantom Zone, and trying to contact Raya, I just haven't found the time to spend with Lana. I know it's wrong, but I have to clean up my mess!"

"Oh honey, you can't blame yourself over what happened. It wasn't your fault" Martha tried soothing him.

"It wasn't? if I had just listened to Jor-El…"

"And done what Clark? Killed Lex!" Chloe jumped in.

"You're not a murderer," his mother stated.

"I know it's just…" Clark was interrupted by the sound of Raya's voice in his ears.

"_Kal-El, I'm at your place of residence, we have much to discuss. Come quickly!"_

"Clark, honey what is it? Martha asked starting to get worried at the look of shock and surprise Clark had on his face.

"It's Raya." He began. "She's at the house, she wants me to meet her there. Says it urgent." He replied.

"Go. I'll tell Lana I sent you to do your chores and that you send your love. Go Clark!" Martha implored.

"Thanks mom. Cya later Chloe, tell Lois to get well soon."

"I will Clark, and thanks for getting her here so quickly."

Clark nodded and sped out of the room. Moments later Lana walked in with a cup of water. "Here you are Mrs. Kent." She said handing the cup over to Lana.

"Why thank you dear."

"So, where's Clark"

"Oh, sorry Lana, Clark still had some farm chores to do so I sent him home, he sends his love to you though."

"Ok, thank you."

They sat there all three of them in the waiting room catching up on what's been happening in their lives. Chloe explaining the difficulties in trying to juggle classes and a job at the Daily Planet, Lana providing them with details of how wonderful and exciting the last 4 weeks have been with all her astronomical classes.

Looking at her watch and gets up, Mrs. Kent says "Well girls it's getting late, I really should head off home. Do any of you girls need a lift anywhere."

"No thanks Mrs. Kent but I'm gonna spend the night in Lois' room. I just can't leave her before I hear her voice. Plus I also wanna know what she was doing in Smallville in the first place. So I'm gonna stay here."

"Oh, OK. What about you Lana? Where are you gonna be staying"

"Oh, I rented the apartment above the Talon. I'm gonna be crashing there for the duration of the break. And I've got my car parked outside so I'm fine, but thanks for your concern Mrs. Kent"

"OK, well then I'm off, I'll talk to you girls soon. Say hi to Lois for us Chloe. I'll see if I can stop bye in the morning. Bye girls."

"Bye Mrs. Kent." They both answered.

"Well," Lana said turning to Chloe "I'm also gonna head off, I'm tired and need to get some rest. Call if you need anything?"

"Sure, Lana." Chloe got up and gave her roommate and best friend a hug. "Drive safely." She added with a quick smile.

"Always." Lana replied.

And with that Chloe was left alone with her cousin. She walked into her room and found a chair in the corner. She sat there and stared at her cousin before she found herself dozing off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

Clark arrived at the barn in almost no time. He looked around trying to see where she was, when he heard a sound coming from the back of the barn. As he walked closer to the door he saw a figure emerge from the frame.

"Raya?" he asks.

Emerging from the shadows the beautiful blonde responds with a smile, "Hello Kal-El it's good to see you."

Clark leads Raya out of the barn and around the farm, conversing as they do.

"I was afraid I'd never see you again… Sorry I didn't want to leave you in the phantom zone –"

"You had no choice; it's OK Kal-El. And if it wasn't for you I would have never escaped! I would never have seen all this!" spreading her hands, gesturing their surroundings. "It's more beautiful than the world your father described."

"How'd you find me?"

"Your father told me about the family he had chosen for you, about Smallville. It must have been hard growing up here by yourself!"

"I – had my parents, had my friends."

"But no one who really understood you."

"You mean what was it like to grow up with such a big secret?"

"And the amazing rush of racing trains, knowing nothing can hurt you."

"I used to try and pretend not to notice. But sometime I catch my dad watching me when I'd pick up something that was impossible for him to even move. He wants so much to know what that feels like."

"But he never will."

"No matter how I think I fit in, everyday I'm reminded I'm not one of them."

"You're not alone anymore, I'm here." Raya said with a smile.

"CLARK? Honey, come on in your dad's almost home, you need to wash up before dinner."

"Coming mom. That's my mom," Clark began, seeing Raya's confused look. "You're going to love her, she's great, come on." He added, tugging on Raya's arm.

"Mom!" he calls grabbing her attention as he and Raya walk through the door. "Mom, I'd like you to meet Raya; Raya this is my mother Martha Kent." Clark stated proudly.

"Hi sweetie, I'm honored to meet you, Clark has told me so much, and thank you for helping him escape the Phantom Zone." Martha said as she shook hands with the young woman.

"It's my pleasure Martha Kent, and please no need to thank me, after all it was Kal-El who helped me escape as well."

"Well OK then, I assume that you will be staying for dinner as well, it's really the least I can do." Martha said graciously.

"Yes I will I hope you don't mind me imposing, haven't had a meal in a very long time."

"Well then tonight's your lucky night" Jonathan quipped as he walked in through the door. "Martha's making her specialty, pot roast with a side of potatoes and salad" he said as he planted a quick hello kiss on his wife's cheek.

"Raya this is my dad, Jonathan Kent; dad this is Raya."

"Hello Jonathan Kent."

"So you're Raya. Clark has nothing but good things about you, and might I add it's finally good to see something other than devastation and heartache come out of the Phantom Zone." He stated with a smile.

Raya chuckled, "I am most grateful for your hospitality Jonathan and Martha, Kal-El has informed me of how wonderful you were in his upbringing. Jor-El would be most pleased to see the man that Kal-El is because of you two."

"Speaking of Jor-El" Jonathan began, "Clark have you told her of that person you say you've been um, well, feeling?"

"Um, well uh – n-no, not really." He replied weakly.

"Feeling?" Raya asked, looking confused.

"Clark apparently has been feeling the presence of someone, but he doesn't know who it is. We were wondering if maybe you knew who he was, another phantom or something?" Jonathon explained.

"No. If Kal-El can as you say sense his presence then he is not one of the phantom's."

"So do you know who is?" Clark asked. His tone one of hope and desperation.

"On Krypton, Kryptonian families shared a special bond with their members. They can sense their presence when one is near. That is why family is of great importance on Krypton."

"So you're saying that was some sort of long lost relative."

"That is exactly what I am telling you Kal-El."

"Great! So do you know who he is?"

"Kal-El are you sure it's not Jor-El?"

"I'm positive. Why didn't I have any relatives. No you did, but you only had female cousins, no males. Come to think of it Kal-El, the only other male relative was… no it is a ridiculous idea. It is not possible."

"Well who is? Do you know?" Clark pleaded.

"Kor-El, my husband, and your brother." Raya stated smoothly and calmly.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, are you saying that Clark has a…" Jonathan started.

"Brother!" Clark finished excitedly. "And he's your husband?" Clark asked to make sure.

Raya nodded in agreement.

"So what that would make you my sister-in-law."

Again, Raya nodded.

"Clark, before you get really excited, may I remind you that he could be just like Jor-El. He could be nothing but trouble."

"Dad, with three Kryptonians, it will make putting the Phantoms back in the Phantom Zone a whole lot easier, and I now have a family."

"Clark," Martha spoke for the first time in the conversation. "I thought we were your family?" she finished trying to hold back the tears.

"Of course you are Mom. You and dad are my parents, nothing is going to change that. But now I have some people who know what it's like to have my powers, to know what it's like to be me, and who I don't have to hide my real self from."

"One!" Raya spoke.

"What?" all three Kents exclaimed at once.

"Only one Kryptonian will be needed. Kal-El you said that it will be easy to trap the phantoms with three Kryptonians. I am telling you that only one of us will be needed. Assuming that it was your brother you were sensing."

"Why?" Clark, asked confused.

"Whilst Jor-El, was responsible for trapping the Phantoms into the Phantom Zone, it was Kor-El who actually captured them to be placed on trial in the first place. He is the only good warrior that was on Krypton. The rest were all in allegiance to Zod. Krypton was a peaceful planet, violence in any form was punishable by exile to the Phantom Zone since we did not believe in the death sentence. Kor-El found out about an attack that Zod was planning to overthrow Jor-El from his throne, so that he could be the ruler of Krypton and anyone who opposed him would be destroyed. Fortunately Kor-El went out and studied various forms of fighting techniques from across the universe and was able to bring Zod and his men before Jor-El for trial. Unfortunately since Kor-El used violence he was also exiled."

"What? Hold on a sec. Throne? Are you saying that I'm from a royal blood-line, that I'm some sort of a prince."

"Indeed Kal-El."

"How can Jor-El exile his own son, doesn't he have a heart?" Jonathan asked, still convinced that Jor-El was a bad man.

"Jonathan Kent make no mistake, Jor-El wanted nothing more that to gather Kor-El in his arms and congratulate him on a job well done, but Kryptonian law states that any violence will be punishable by exile, since Kor-El was his son, Jor-El was even more pressured to uphold the law."

"So, um Kor-El, got banished to the Phantom Zone as well?" Clark asked.

"No, Jor-El was able to bring to the council's attention that the actions of Kor-El were undertaken in order to prevent the destruction of the planet. So Kor-El was banished forever from Krypton into the universe.


	9. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

The morning rays of sunlight filtered through Lois' curtain; striking her face directly. She stirred under the covers. Not yet willing to let her consciousness be in full control. She wanted to indulge in this feeling of laziness, contempt with doing nothing but snuggling in her bed and inhaling the beautiful rich scent of… coffee?

'_Where's that coming from?' _her journalistic mind now up and running at top notch. She shot straight up, immediately regretting it, once she felt the sharp pain in her head. "Aargh" she let out a small moan as she lowered herself back down whilst slowly massaging her head; surprised to feel a bandage covering the spot where the pain was being emitted. Hearing a familiar chuckle, she turned her head to where both sound and scent were coming from simultaneously.

"Well, good morning sleepy head."

"Chloe? What's going on? Where am I?"

"Smallville Hospital. Clark found you and your car dumped, out on route 40, he was able to pull you away before the car exploded and he brought you over here right away," she explained. Her expression changed, expressing emotions of fear and depression.

"God, Lois! I was so worried when Clark told me what happened on the phone, I rushed here as soon as I can. I-I was so worried, th-that, oh my God Lois I didn't know what I would've done if I lost you. What were you doing out on route 40 anyway?

"I was on my way back from the LuthorCorp plant!"

"What were you doing there?"

"I was following a lead I received from my source about something that both Lex and Lionel were working on together. I snuck in through the air vents and found my way to where both Luthors were meeting this CIA agent. On my way out I made some noise and before I knew it I was being chased by Lex's bodyguards. I remember making it to my care, dodging a couple of bullets, my car swerving out of control, then I woke up here."

Lois finished, careful not to reveal any information about last night, she had to get out of there quickly so she can warn Clark.

"Uhuh. Lois? What aren't you telling me?

"Nothing."

"O, c'mon this is me you're talking to here, you can tell me anything, we're family."

"I know Chloe, but honestly there's nothing to tell. I was on a wild goose chase."

She was lying and Chloe knew, Lois was really shaken up about something, but she just couldn't put a finger on what it was.

"Can you at least tell me why the Luthor's hired a CIA agent?" 

Lois figured it wouldn't hurt anybody to tell Chloe that much, since after all it was extremely ridiculous.

"Well, see the Luthors have this crazy idea that some sort of little green men from outer space landed here on Earth at the time of the first meteor shower. Apparently they can do all sorts of superhuman feats. So, they want to track this E.T. study it, and then create an army of super soldiers and sell them to the highest bidder.

Chloe's eyes were wide-open by Lois' recount. Before Lois can enquire to Chloe's shocked and almost horrified look, the door to her room opened, shifting Lois' attention to the door.

"Knock, knock." Said a familiar voice.

"Oliver!" Lois replied cheerfully, as she sat up and returned Oliver's hug.

"Mr. Queen" Chloe acknowledged his presence.

"Miss Sullivan." Turning his attention back to Lois after retuning Chloe's greeting, he continued. "I hear about what happened and came here right away. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it's just a concussion and a few broken bones, nothing serious." She joked.

"Glad to see that you're sharp tongue and sense of humor hasn't at all been affected by your brush with death." He returned he smile.

"Oh, and Bruce is sorry he couldn't be here, he had business."

"Bruce?" Chloe asked turning towards her cousin.

"Bruce Wayne! We met at one of the charity balls he was holding. Turns out Bruce and Oliver were also friends at Excelsior. He was kind enough to give me a suite at Wayne Tower Hotel, as well as point out to me the best coffee shops and takeaway Chinese restaurants in Gotham."

"I can't believe you know Bruce Wayne as well. How is that you're the one that ends up meeting all the more interesting figures in our society."

"Well it doesn't help when your dad is a three-star general, and that your boyfriend also happens to be a hot billionaire who meets other billionaires at functions and balls."

"Um, excuse me Miss Sullivan but I'd like some time alone with Lois if you don't mind?"

"Oh, No not at all, I have to head to the Planet anyway to work on some stuff. I'll call you when I get to the planet to see how you're feeling Lois."

She got up and hugged her cousin, before making her way out and closing the door. On her way she heard their muttered _I miss you's _and _I love you's _in between their short kisses that were rapidly deepening and lengthening. _'Lucky Lois'_ she thought to herself. But she didn't have time to dwell on her cousin's good fortune, she rushed to her car as quickly as her feet allowed her to. She had to find any information that Lex and Lionel were working on so she could warn Clark!


	10. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

Back in Smallville, two super powered beings race around the county.

Clark arrived first at the Kent Barn, Raya followed him mere seconds later.

"You cheated!" she said with a smile.

"I couldn't let a rookie catch me in the last county." He replied with a grin of his own as he followed Raya into the barn.

"Jor-El would have never let you get away with that."

Clark stopped. Realizing that this was his chance to find out what his biological father was really like.

"What was he like?" the question made Raya stop in her tracks and turn to face Clark. "My father" Clark finished.

"Brave. Strong. With the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known. Kor-El was very much the same, except he had a wonderful sense of humor." She finished with a smile.

"To be honest that's not the Jor-El I imagined, as for Kor-El well if he really is here, then I guess I'll meet him soon enough."

"You're correct. As for Jor-El, he was determined to save us. I remember helping him to build your ship. He was so careful, planning every detail, down to your baby blanket."

A smile tugged at Clark's lips.

"I wish that he can see you now."

Clark walked away, unable to meet her eyes, "I haven't been the best son." He confessed.

"Your father was hard on himself as well, he felt guilty that he couldn't save Krypton. His only redemption was sending you to save Earth."

At this Clark stopped and turned to face Raya again. "Save it from what?"

"Extinction! Your civilization is going to destroy itself just like Krypton. You should now this it was part of your training!" she finished, a myriad of emotions flowing in her admission.

"I haven't started my training." He responded in a low voice.

"Now the fortress is damaged. Jor-El tried to warn me but I didn't listen, I mean how can I trust someone who has brought so much pain into my life."

"Pain is a part of anyone's journey Kal-El you can't escape it. You must accept your destiny." She finished in an angry tone.

"Too bad that destiny's just gotten a little shorter. The _last _son of Krypton. I've been waiting for this moment for a _long_ time."

"You're the one who's been coming for me."

"And I think it will be worth the trip."

Baron then super speeds so that he is just a couple of feet away from Clark and Raya.

"What's the matter Raya? Don't recognize an old friend? It's me, _Baron_" he said his name in a very low and distorted voice.

"He's one of the phantoms." she explained, but never taking her eyes off of Baron.

"How do you like the new suit?"

"What do you want?" Clark asked as he took a step forward positioning himself in front of Raya.

"To PAY BACK YOUR OLD MAN! FOR GIVING ME A ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL" Baron exclaimed. "But then he had to go and get himself obliterated. Along with everyone else on that ice-cube you call a planet." He finished with a smug. "So I guess you'll have to do."

Baron then thrust out his arms and two purple beams of radioactive energy shot out from his arms, hitting Clark squarely, in the chest, sending him flying through the barn and landing him in the pastures.

The attack left Baron drained, he super-sped behind Raya in an attempt to catch her off guard. But Raya sensed his approach and super-sped herself, turning quickly and kicking him directly in the jaw. The force of the blow sent Baron soaring through the barn himself. Raya then super-sped towards Clark and helped him to his feet.

"Kal-El?"

"Where is he?" he asks.

Raya turns her gaze to the fields. Clark's gaze follows her own. Both seeing that Baron had fled the area, but to where?

Back at the hospital, Lois and Oliver had just finished a make out session.

"Well I'm glad to know that broken bones and concussions don't affect your kissing technique."

"I had to prove to you that all my vital skills are up on running if I'm to convince you to get me out of here sooner, aren't I?" She replied.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

The knocking on the door interrupted them from their conversation, as they both turned their attention to the door. Before Lois could respond to her unwanted interrupted the door opened and in emerged a strange figure, who bared much similarity to Clark.

"Cevin!" Oliver exclaimed, as he got up to greet the new arrival in the room.

"Ollie?" Cevin asked. Confused at what Oliver Queen was doing in the room. The two shared a quick hug. Oliver never knew that Lois had become tense, and that her heart rate had quickened. She knew who he was now. He was Cevin Klein, the CIA agent that Lex and Lionel hired to spy on Clark. What she didn't is how Oliver and Cevin knew each or that Cevin had seen her muscles tense, and heard are her heart rate rise.

They separated. And Cevin began. "Actually I'm here to ask Miss Lane here a couple of questions, about what happened last night. She may have heard some things that could compromise National Security. "

"Wait you're here for an interrogation?" Cevin nodded, and Oliver began his explanation. "Whoa hold on there Cevin, I don't think she's ready for that yet, she's still recovering a-"

"Yeah, but that didn't stop you two from being all over each other did it? C'mon dude it'll only be a couple minutes I swear."

"Okay, fine!" Oliver said before he slumped down in his chair. Cevin gave him an incredulous look, cocked an eyebrow, and slightly chuckled to himself before asking,

"You don't actually think you're gonna sit here whilst I interrogate her do you?"

"I won't let you hurt her." Oliver explained.

Cevin let out a frustrated breath. "Ollie in all the years that you've known me, have I ever hurt anyone other than you and Bruce? You have my word not scratch will come to her. Oh and uh whilst you're outside get the lady something to drink will, she looks extremely flushed." The last comment caused Oliver to turn a deep shade of crimson, Cevin just winked at him as he closed the door, before turning to face Lois.

"Miss Lane."

"Cevin. Or should I call you agent Klein."

"Whatever tickles your fancy Miss Lane."

"Does Oliver know that you're a CIA agent?" she asked aggressively, hoping to form some kind of guilt or have some information to blackmail him with.

"Of course! That's kind of a stupid question really isn't it? I mean how could he not know that I'm some kind of officer when he asked and I quote, _Wait you're here for an interrogation?" _he said in a voice that matched Oliver's voice exactly.

Lois realizing her error quickly went on the offensive again, "Well it seems Lex was right you are quite the imitator aren't ya?"

"I'll take that as a compliment. Now Miss Lane I've got places to be so if you don't mind I'd like to get on with this interrogation. I'm sure your aware of how it works, with your father being a three-star general and all, I'll do the questioning you'll do the answering and unless otherwise instructed remain silent throughout the duration of the interrogation. Clear?"

Lois nodded, amazed at how calm and in control he appeared to be. The fact that he appeared calm wasn't what amazed her, it was the fact that she couldn't sense any form of discomfort what so ever, from him. When Lois, in the past, tried to irritate people, she could tell that she succeeded by the slightest of changes in the person's demeanor, their jaw's clenched, their backs stiffened, they balled their fists, and always their was a change that was visible in the eyes that went from confident and arrogant, to downright pissed off. But with this guy, there was no arrogance, nor anger, just warm eyes searching for answers to her questions. Whilst his eye color was hazel with tints of green, yellow, and silver mixed in to form the most adorable set of brown eyes she had ever seen, they still reminded her of the familiar blue-green eyes of Clark, they exuded the same warmth and security that his eyes would emit when she'd open up to him and let him in behind her solidly built walls. It was for this reason alone that Lois silently nodded her head and refrained from blurting out any more comments in an attempt to throw him off guard.

"Good. Well, Miss Lane, let's start with the typical questions shall we? Why were you there?" but before Lois could answer she found that he had began speaking again. "Because you were following a lead about this secret project that Lex and Lionel were working on. How'd you find out about that? A source tipped you off. What did you hear? Everything! How'd you make it inside the plant? Snuck in through the air vent. How'd you end up in here? You were chased by a couple of members from the Luthor security guards team. They chased you in hot pursuit, fired a couple of gunshots, you're car swerved out of control and here you are. How'd they know you were there? You let out a little yelp when you hear the name Clark Kent! Well Miss Lane, now that the formalities are done why don't I just ask you the one question I came here to ask? Why did you yelp when you heard the name Clark Kent?"

Lois just lied there on her bed, mouth opened in awe, he had answered every single one of his own questions as if she had answered them herself. She didn't know what to think, damn it! She didn't even know what to say. There were very few moments in her life when Lois Lane was rendered speechless, this was definitely one of them. _How?_ She wondered. _How can he possibly know all these things?_

"I'm very good at my job!" Cevin just blurted out, seemingly out of the blue.

"Sorry?" Lois asked in confusion.

"You were asking yourself, "how I could possibly know all the things that I know?" My answer is that I'm very good at my job."

"I can see that. What you read minds as well?"

"I wish!" he replied honestly.

"Well you know when you retire, you can go to the circus and have your own act I'm sure you'd stun everyone with your ability to answer your own questions." She finished off with a smirk.

Cevin looked at her blankly, before he started chuckling lightly to himself, "You really are a truly amazing person Miss Lane."

"How so?" she asked.

"You know after I start asking all the questions and answer them myself, people give me pretty much the same look you had on your face just mere moments ago. So when I finally ask them the questions that I did want them to answer, they're just so freaked out, they answer me so I can leave them the hell alone. You on the other hand, refuse to be knocked down, and never shut up!" he said smiling.

"Yeah well, it's one of my best qualities."

Cevin nodded, acknowledging her admission. "But Miss Lane, I want to tell you something. Despite what you think that I'm working with the Luthors so that makes me the bad guy. I'm not. I hear there's an alien living on this planet with all these amazing things he can do, well I just have to check it out and make sure that he doesn't plan on doing anything that won't harm this country and ultimately the world. You understand?"

"I do. It's not that you're working with the Luthors that is what has me worried. It's the fact that Lex and Lionel are constantly trying to cause mayhem to the Kent family's life that has got me ticked off. And since I've read your file I know just what you're capable of and that, combined with the fact that you're working for the Luthors Has me worried. But I want to tell ya something. The Kents are a wonderful family, they provided me with a roof over my head and never expected anything in return, and as for Smallville, I mean Clark, he sure he may be a bit weird, but he's definitely no alien, if anything he's probably the most honorable person I know. So look, I don't know why I'm gonna ask you this but, there's just something about your eyes that are just so remarkably similar to Clark's, which makes it really easy to open up to. What I'm gonna ask you is even if by some miracle, Clark Kent does turn out to be this alien, which would explain why he has the knack of showing up at just the right time, please don't tell the Luthors. Clark Kent is an amazing person, my best friend, he'd never do anything to hurt anyone he cares too much about people to do so." Lois finished her eyes clearly pleading to Cevin that he does no such thing.

"Well Miss Lane, since you seem to be very sincere, so I'm going to put you at ease and answer some questions that you may possibly have. The first is Clark Kent an alien? You tell me. Have you ever seen, bleed, get sick, get hurt, can he run lightning fast, can he pick up tractors with his pinky?"

"No, just a couple of weeks ago Clark had the flu. I've seen him get hurt and get knocked out. At times if Clark moved any slower he'd be extinct, and whilst he may be strong, he certainly can't lift a tractor with his pinky."

"Well so there you have it. You don't have to worry about me exposing your friend to the Luthors, because there's nothing to expose. To answer your second question, why do my eyes and my whole look in general appear to be very much like Clark? Well, I was going to tell him first but, if you promise to keep this between you and me for know I'll tell you since you two are close."

Lois nodded, to indicate she agreed with his terms.

"Well I think that this Clark Kent of yours, may be my long lost brother."

Lois' eyes widened in shock, she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Good day Miss Lane." Cevin said as he walked out. And just as soon as he did Oliver walked in. Seeing the look of shock she had on her face he asked.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" he asked as he hander her the glass of water he was holding in his hand

"I'm fine." She answer as she downed the cup.

"What did he say?"

"Oh well you know, the usual."

"He pulled the answer his own questions trick on you, didn't he? It's okay, I had the same look on my face the first time he did it to me."

"Yeah that's exactly it." she smiled. Glad that she didn't have to come up with some lame excuse as to why she had been so shocked. With a twinkle in her eye she smirked. "Now where were we?" she asked as she grabbed Oliver's shirt and captured his lips with her own.

Both Oliver and Lois were oblivious that Cevin was still outside the door, and that he had both seen and heard everything that had happened. He chuckled to himself, and turned to walk towards the window. Smiling to himself that Kal-El had such reliable friends he can count. Opening the window and quickly scanning the area to make sure no one was looking, he shot of towards the sky.

"Next stop," he began, before he finished his sentence in a voice that sounded as if Lois had said herself, "_Smallville_."


	11. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

At the Daily Planet, Clark and Raya head towards Chloe to see if she can help them track down where Baron may have fled to.

"Baron wouldn't have left the area with you still alive." Raya said as her and Clark walked the final set of stairs that went through to the basement of the Daily Planet.

"There must be some other place he'd go. Maybe a military installation the public doesn't know about."

"Hey, I've been trying to call you where have you been?" Chloe asked as she walked out of the photocopying room.

"Racing around." Clark answered. Chloe gave him a confused look. "Chloe, this is Raya."

"Oh Raya, wow, it's nice to know something good finally came out of the Phantom Zone especially since we have a big problem." She finished, handing Clark a couple of photographs of the power source that is used to power Brainiac.

"Chloe this is what Zod was gonna use to wipe out the Earth. Where'd you get this?"

"Jimmy took it." She explained. "It was on Lex's desk."

"I thought I destroyed it."

"I know this design. It's part of the Brain Interactive Construct." Raya explained. Her eyes firmly set on the picture.

"What?" Chloe asked, confused.

"Brainiac. This box was its power core. Kryptonian energy source exponentially stronger than anything here on Earth."

"Baron." Clark said, just realizing what this could do..

"If he gets a hold of this it will give him enough power to fuel him indefinitely. And kill us both."

"What about Kor-El?" Clark suddenly asked.

"Who's Kor-El?" Chloe asked.

"Long story."

"What about him?" Raya asked curious to see where Clark was going with this inquiry.

"You said that he was the one who originally caught the phantoms. Why don't we get him to help us?"

"We don't have the time to race around the world to look for him, and I don't have any way of contacting him. All we can do is hope that he finds us before Baron, and any of the other phantoms do." Raya finished off, hoping that she sees her husband sooner rather than later."

At the Luthor mansion, Lex was studying the Kryptonian power source when Lana walked through the doors of his office.

"Lana," he began with a smile. "What a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I'm sorry Lex I just didn't know who else to talk too, and you've always been there for me to hear me out."

"Lana," he said, before placing both his hands on her shoulders, and stroking them gently. "You know that I'm always here for you, and that you can tell me anything."

"I know." She smiled softly at him. "Clark did it again."

"Did what again?"

"He took off giving me some lame excuse about his dad needing him for some help out on the farm, when he actually went to route 40." She said as she walked away from him and started to pace lightly.

"What was he doing out on route 40?"

"Somehow he knew that Lois was in an accident. I want to know how. And I want to know why doesn't he trust me enough to tell me? You know I keep waiting for his armor to crack. I thought if I was patient enough he'd let me in, but uh, I guess people have armor for a reason."

"You know Lana, it's possible that Clark is never going to trust you." He replied.

Lana looked disappointed. Then noticing the power source she walked towards it. "Lex, I know what this is, this is what that creature that possessed you was gonna use to wipe out the Earth. What are you doing with it?"

"Luthor Corp. has been working with the military, trying to uncover it's secrets. It's amazing isn't it? Such a simple little fragment of metal, could unlock the secrets of the universe."

As Lana approached the box, the doors to Lex's office burst open, revealing Baron.

"You have something I need!" he exclaimed breathlessly.

"Don't worry Lana I'm gonna call security." Lex assured her as he rushed for the phone.

"There currently unavailable right now."

Spotting the power source Baron, hobbles toward it like a mad-man.

Lex steps in his way, "You're not getting near it." He states firmly.

Baron responded by pushing him, sending him soaring through a glass table.

"LEX!" Lana screamed, worried that he might have been seriously injured.

They both look up to see Baron place his hand over the object. A bright purple light appears, accompanied by a low, distorted screeching noise. This marvel continued for about five seconds, before the power source turned to ash, and Baron sped out of the room.

Just then, Cevin walked through the doors and rushed to Lex's side. "Mr. Lex! Are you alright? What happened?" As he and Lana helped Lex to his feet, he spotted the pile of ash on Lex's desk. "Baron!" he whispered to himself. As Lex continued to groan, Cevin effortlessly scooped him up, "Let's get him to the hospital. Do you have a car?" He asked Lana.

She nodded in response.

"I'm gonna need you to take him there. I have some things I need to work on first. I'll meet you there Miss, uh…"

"Lang, Lana Lang."

"Okay, Miss Lang."

They arrived to Lana's car and Cevin strapped Lex in, then quickly scanned over his body. "He's fine thankfully nothing is broken, just some scratches and bruises." He assured her.

Closing the door, he watched as Lana, sped off towards the hospital. "Baron, how in the world did you escape?" he asked before he shot off towards the sky. Baron didn't see Clark's super-speedy approach to the mansion, nor did Clark see Cevin shoot off into the night sky.


	12. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

_Smallville General Hospital._

Lana rushed into the room where Lex was being examined. "Lex are you alright?" she asked in a panic stricken tone. Worry was sketched all over her face.

"It's only a second degree burn, nothing to worry about. They want to run an x-ray to make sure my ribs are all right."

"How did that thing know about the box?"

"That's exactly what I was wondering."

"Well, who was that man that helped you into the car?"

"Agent Cevin Klein, he's a CIA agent, he's helping me on a secret investigation."

Before Lana, could further inquire as too what this secret investigation was, there was light knock on the door to the room, both turning their heads to see none other than Clark standing at the door.

"Clark!" Lana exclaimed, semi-joyously as she ran up and gave Clark a quick hug, which he returned.

A hint of jealousy was seen in Lex's eyes, before asking in an annoyed tone, "What are you doing here?"

"I dropped by the mansion, I heard you were taken to the hospital. You okay?"

"We're fine Clark, both of us."

"What happened?"

"I had an uninvited guest, but, I'm used to that kind of thing."

Clark, forced himself from not rolling his eyes at him, a trait he picked up from Lois. "Well I'm glad you're alright then."

Just then the back door to the room opened and a doctor walked through the door, "Mr. Luthor let's get you down to the x-ray."

Lex quietly turned and left, but quickly smiled softly at Lana, who returned his smile with one of her own.

Turning to face Clark properly, Lana began to bagger Clark in a demanding tone. "Clark! What are you really doing here? And don't tell me it's to check up on Lex, because we both know that, that's a lie. What's the real season behind this good-natured visit?"

Startled by Lana's aggressiveness, Clark tried to avoid her question, "Look Lana, you don't want to be in the middle of this."

"No you don't want me in the middle of this, but it's too late. Stop trying to think of excuses Clark and tell me what's going on." See his hesitancy Lana continued. "If you really love me as much as you say you do, tell me, what's going on?"

Shocked by Lana's accusation, he pulled at a photo print-out from his back pocket and handed it to her. "Have you seen this before?"

"Yes. But it doesn't matter anymore. It's just a pile of ash now. That thing destroyed it."

Clark couldn't believe it. He knew what this meant. "Okay Lana, thanks, but I gotta go know."

"Wait Clark, we need to talk."

"Not now Lana, please, this is important."

"Okay." She said in a low angry tone.

"I'm sorry." He added weakly before running down the hall.

When Lex walked out of the x-ray room he was greeted, by Cevin. "Mr. Lex, glad to see you're alright."

"Agent Klein, you'll never guess, who was here, Clark Kent!" he finished coldly.

"Clark Kent." He repeated. Lex just nodded. "Do you know where he went?" his voice seemed almost worried.

"Back to the farm would be my guess wouldn't you?"

"You're right." He finished and took off down the hall and ran outside the hospital's doors, leaving a very perplexed Lex in his wake.

Once he was outside the doors, Cevin scanned the area, in a desperate attempt to find Clark. '_Damn it Kal-El! Where'd you go?' _he thought to himself. Running around to the side alley of the building he shot-off to the sky, and made his way to towards the Kent farm.


	13. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11:**

_Fortress of Solitude_

"Raya I told you the fortress is dead. Why are we here?" Clark asked as they entered the Fortress and followed Raya to the main console.

"It's our only hope to defeat Baron." She slowly stopped in her tracks as she realized just how badly the Fortress had been damaged. Slowly spinning in her spot to take in all that had happened. "This was all we had left of our home Kal-El."

"And now it's gone too." Clark added, the guilt was clearly etched in his voice.

"It was more than that. The Fortress was a store house for all the knowledge in the universe. At least all that we had. How could this happen?" She turned and asked him, clearly disappointed.

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to bring it back."

"Your father wouldn't have given up so easily."

Walking towards her, he began to confront her, raising his voice in anger slightly as he did. "I haven't given up. I don't know what else to do, I've tried everything."

"Everything except the training your father wanted for you."

"So why are we here?" he said in an almost demanding voice.

She continued to walk towards the main consol. "Baron is too dangerous to attack anywhere else. With the power he absorbed from the box he could wipe out half a continent."

"If he's that strong will the crystal still work."

"It should, provided we stay alive long enough to use it."

"I'm not sure it's gonna be that easy just to lure him here."

"I'm going to see if I can re-route whatever residual power is left, just enough to send out a signal. To let Baron know you are here."

_Kent house, at the same time._

Martha walked through the door. "Clark we're home. Your father cancelled the rest of his meetings and we came back early. We dropped by the hardware store to get some supplies for the tractor, and spare wood, could you go help him unload the truck?" She walked towards the living room and switched on the lights. She let out a yelp, when she saw Baron standing in front of her.

"Clark?"

"Don't you mean Kal-El? He left without saying goodbye."

"Who are you? Where's Clark?"

"That's what I would like to know."

Stepping forward, Baron raised both his hands about to strike Martha down. He stopped when he heard the familiar sound signal of the House of El.

"Kal-El!" he exclaims before knocking Martha out, and rushing out of the house.

At the same time Jonathon was unloading the truck when he heard the familiar rush of wind that accompanied Clark's putting on the breaks behind him. Assuming it was Clark, he continued to pull out the tractor parts, but left the wood still in place. "Ah, Clark would you give me hand here and take the wood to the barn, Son?" he turned but was surprised to see, that it wasn't Clark standing behind him. "Who are you?"

"Senator Kent! I'm looking for your son, do you know where I can find him."

"Why?"

"Look senator, I don't have time to explain, it's imperative that I find Kal-El, I mean Clark, he may be in danger, please."

"How'd you know that name? And how am I supposed to know that your not the one that's putting him in danger?"

"Senator ple-" Cevin, was cut off when he heard his family's signal. "Kal-El." As he was about to take off a purple flash in the corner of his eye caught the attention of both men.

"Was there anyone in the house?"

"Just my wife, Martha."

"Oh this is not good, c'mon." Cevin said as both he and Jonathon raced to the house, Cevin getting there in a flash and stopping at the door, Jonathon just ran right passed him.

"Martha, sweetheart. C'mon speak to me!" he said as he crouched down next to her, and gently attempted to wake her up."

"She's fine, no signs of radiation are present, nor are there any broken bones." He walked to the sink and filled two glasses of water. He then scanned the area for where the aspirins were kept, finding them he took it as well and then crouched back next to Jonathon.

"Why two glasses of water?"

"One so she can swallow the aspirin, the other…" he cut himself off when he splashed one of the glasses all over Martha's face, "is to wake her up." He finished with a wide grin, that very much resembled Clark's own.

"She's going to have a headache, hence the aspirin."

"Thank you, but I still don't know who you are, or why you're after Clark?" Jonathon spoke.

"I'm not after him, but someone else, very dangerous is. I don't have time to explain I have to hurry north so that I can save him in time, if you'll excuse me."

As he was about to walk out he felt a strong arm on him, "You're him aren't you? Clark's brother, you're Kor-El!" Martha said, noticing the resemblance and instantly seeing the relation. Kor-E;'s eyes widened slightly before softly nodding. "Bring me back our son, we'll talk then." Seeing Kor-El's hesitancy she then added. "GO!" Then he did just that.

"Martha, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Of course sweetheart, just trust me."

Giving her a quick kiss, "I'm glad you're not hurt."

"Me too, let's just hope that Kor-El gets there in time."


	14. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

_Fortress of Solitude:_

The crystals stopped glowing, and the buzzing quickly died.

"That's all the power I was able to draw. Hopefully it will be enough."

"That sound, I heard it before."

"Every Kryptonian family has a unique tone, a beacon to identify itself. Baron should recognize yours."

"And follow it straight to me." Clark finished.

"So this is Jor-El's famed Fortress of Knowledge." Baron said from behind, causing Raya and Clark to turn and face him. "I thought it'd be bigger." He finished mockingly.

"It doesn't matter you won't be staying long." Clark replied.

"Big talk, big man. I'm surprised you're still standing, I guess Jor-El was right about how the yellow son affects you Kryptonian _cockroaches_." He spat. "But I'm back, and now…" raising his hands "I'm super-sized. This is the perfect place for the fall of the house of El"

Thrusting his hands forward the two purple beams charged towards Clark. This time he was ready, and placed his father's crystal towards the path of the beam, letting out a silvery white-blue beam of its own. Clark however, miscalculated the force of the beam and was knocked backwards, dropping the crystal out of his hand as he did.

"Paying for the sins of your father can be a bitch!" thrusting his arms forwards again, and letting the beams flow towards his unsuspecting, and defenseless target, Raya. The beams made an impact with her body, right on her chest. The sheer force of the beams caused Raya to turn away, as the beams continued to drill inside of her, eventually drilling right through, piercing her heart in the process.

"RAYA!" Clark screamed as he ran towards her, crouching by her side as he did.

"Now, Kal-El," Baron spoke, waiting for Clark to turn his gaze towards him. "You will die." Shooting the beams towards Clark for what, Baron hoped will be the last time. As Clark braced himself for the familiar pain that the beams will bring on impact, he was surprised to find that it never came. As he looked to see what was obstructing the path of the beams, he was surprised to see a the palm of another man, as Clark looked up to see the face of his savior, the unknown figure flicked the beam sending it flying to the ground and throwing Baron off balance in the process.

The man turned and looked down at Clark. Clark recognized his face, it was the man who had told him what was wrong with Lois, back on route 40.

"Kor-El?" he asked.

Giving a slight nod with a little smile, "Kal-El." Then turning his attention, to the casualty that Clark was crouched next to, he bent down and turned the fragile body towards himself. "Raya!" he choked.

Opening her eyes and gazing towards the face of her husband. "Kor-El. Am I dreaming?" She softly.

"No I'm really here." Leaning in he gave her a short kiss, but a passionate one none the less.

Moaning, Raya then continued "Baron, I tried…"

"Shhh, I'll take care of Baron you just save your strength." He said through watery eyes. Turning to Clark, "Will you watch over her?" he asked in a pleading voice. Clark nodded softly in return, as Kor-El stood up and faced Baron, assuming a powerful stance. Clark could clearly see the confidence that flowed from him, he wasn't even fazed. _And why would he be?_ Clark thought to himself _He just diverted the beam without even using the crystal. _His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Raya's voice.

"Kal-El, sit me up, I want to see my husband in action, just one last time, please." She said in a very soft and still voice. Clark turned and faced towards Raya. It was hard for him to believe that such a strong woman as herself could be rendered to be so fragile. She reminded him of Lois, and the time when Geoff had almost drowned her. She was so fragile, and spoke in such a soft voice, Clark couldn't believe that was actually Lois Lane who he was holding.

"Sure." He replied, and held her head up against his chest so that she could see what was happening. When he was satisfied with the position she was in Clark turned his attention back to Kor-El and Baron.

Baron got to his feet and stared straight into the eyes of Kor-El.

"Well, well. Look who it is, Lord Kor-El! I must say I never thought I'd ever see you again, but I'm glad you're here. Now I can take out both the sons of Jor-El in one sweep, and then I'll be rid of all you Kryptonian Cockroaches for good!"

"Big talk, considering the last time we met was back on Krypton, and if my memory serves me correctly, I wiped the floor with you then, imagine what I can do to you now."

The insult sent Baron into a blind rage, as he let out a monstrous roar and again blasted his energy beams towards Kor-El. As the beams tunneled their way through the air, Kor-El narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, and shot from his eyes his own two beams.

It was a sight that Clark would never forget. Whilst Clark knew that Kor-El was using his heat vision, he noted that it was nothing like his own. Instead of near invisible fireballs being shot from his eyes, Kor-El's heat vision was a continuous red beam of concentrated heat. It was magnificent. With a quick burst of energy from his eyes Kor-El sent Baron soaring backwards through the air.

Baron hurriedly got to his feet, his temper was flaring. "AAAAARGGGHHHHHH" he let out a large roar, and again attempted to blast Kor-El with his beams. Moving into super-speed, the beams appeared to stop in mid-flight, Kor-El was moving so fast that even Clark and Raya didn't realize that he was moving, spotting the crystal just a couple of feet away. Grabbing it quickly and then repositioning himself in front of the beams path, he held the crystal out in front of the oncoming beams. As he moved out of super-speed the beams started moving faster and faster towards him, until they finally impacted with the beam that was emitted from the crystal. Try as Baron might he couldn't out match the power of Jor-El's crystal and felt his energy fade away. As Kor-El moved closer and closer to Baron, the purple beams of energy kept receding to the power of the silvery white-blue, until finally the crystal had completely engulfed Baron's power and started to suck him out of the young boys body. But resistance was futile and Baron was finally imprisoned into the crystal, leaving the body he had overtaken lying unconscious on the floor.

Walking towards where Raya and Clark were seated he crouched next to Clark and scooped Raya up into his arms.

"Take the kid to the hospital, and then head over to the farm, I'll meet you there in a couple of hours."

"What about, Raya."

"There's nothing we can do for her, she's going to die."

"What! There has to be something anything."

"Do you really think if there was something that I can do, that I wouldn't? I'd kill myself right now if it would mean that she'd stay alive, but there's nothing neither you nor I can do about it."

"So what are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna spend some quality time with my wife in her dying hours." He said as he walked away from where Clark was standing and towards one of the chambers.

Realizing what he meant Clark ran over and scooped up the knocked out body in his arms, as he turned to gaze in the direction of where Kor-El had walked off, he thought about what Kor-El was about to lose, his wife, and no doubt one of his best friends. Clark thought about what he had almost lost, and as he strolled towards the portal made a mental note to go visit Lois, after he had told his parents what happened. In a flash of light, they were gone, leaving Kor-El and Raya, all alone in the Fortress.


	15. Chapter 13

**ROAD TO GREATNESS**

**Chapter 13**

After making sure that Baron's host was safe and sound Clark, remembered what Kor-El had told him about his parents. As he was making his way out of the hospital he suddenly remembered that he had wanted to see how Lois was feeling. He had almost lost her and what more he had felt more pain at losing her than anyone else, including Lana's death. And that fact scared him. He had no idea as to why he felt such pain and sorrow to her almost being dead. Sure they were friends, but not lovers; heck they were walking a very fine line between best friends and just friends. Yet when he saw her lying there unconscious, and fragile, he felt that apart of his soul had been literally torn out of him, and when the doctor assured him that she'll make a full recovery, he felt a renewed energy within him. The world around him wasn't spinning, nor was it dull or grey. The world had become colorful again, and he can once again see clearly, almost as if that Lois' life had given his own life meaning.

His train of thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone shriek his name out.

"CLARK"

As he jerked his head in the direction of where the sound was coming from, he saw his mother rushing down the hall towards him, his father in check. Her eyes expressed that she was both happy and relieved that he was fine.

He outstretched his hands and allowed the warmth of his mother's embrace envelope him. Many times as a child when his mother would embrace him, all his fears would melt away, and for the mere moments that she would hold him, he felt safe… _normal_. He allowed himself to indulge in this blissful feeling, before turning and acknowledging his father.

"Son." He said with a relieved smile, before hugging Clark himself. "We're glad you're alright. So, what happened?"

"Raya, she's dead." He answered, the sadness obviously visible in his voice.

"What happened?"

"It's a long story, we should leave it till we get home. What were you guys doing here?"

"Well son, I brought Martha down for a quick check-up, and then we thought since we haven't seen Lois in a while, we might as well drop by and see how she's doing."

"So, how is she?"

"Oh well Clark you know Lois and how she can't stand hospitals," his mother started, "she insists that she is fine and requests to be let out immediately, just not using those exact words."

Clark smiled for the first time in two-days, "That sounds like Lois" he said.

"Are you going to see her?" his mom asked.

"Yeah, I haven't come to see her since, well, the accident. Some best friend I am." In a grim tone.

"Clark, son, any person would be lucky to have a friend like you in their life. We'll see you back home. We're both very proud of you."

"Bye, sweetheart."

"Bye mom, bye dad."

He watched as his parents walked off down the hall and rounded the corner, before he turned and headed towards Lois' room and braced himself for another round of verbal sparring with the brash Lois Lane.

Knocking on the door, he waited for her permission before entering the room. What he saw when he got inside left him in total shock.

Instead of Lois being tucked in bed, and resting; she was lying on the floor doing sit-ups. She was already on 102 when she turned to see who was at the door.

"Hey there Smallville, what's up?" she said completely oblivious to Clark's shocked state, as she continued doing her sit-ups.

"Lois what are you doing?"

"I'm baking a cake, what does it look like I'm doing Clarkie?"

He stood still for a moment and glared at her. "The doctors orders were that you're supposed to sit in your bed and rest, and last time I checked stomach crunches weren't included as resting."

"Okay first off Smallville, doctors don't give orders, they give recommendations, hence I'm entitled not to listen. Secondly just because someone's name has the title Dr. instead of Mr. or Mrs. Or Miss, and walk around with a stethoscope all day doesn't mean that they know what I can or cannot do. Thirdly I'm almost done."

"149, 150.Whew. There, ya happy. And finally, I've told you once before I don't need an overprotective brother especially one who isn't my brother."

"I'm not trying to be your brother, I'm trying to be your friend. I thought I'd drop in and see how you're doing, obviously you're fine since you're still as rude as ever so I think I'll just leave." As he turned to walk towards the door, Lois called out to him causing him to stop.

"Clark wait, ah look – I'm sorry I bit your head off."

As he turned and faced her, her eyes locked onto his deep blue eyes, silently asking her to continue. She didn't know why, but every time Clark sensed that there was a more deeper meaning to what she was saying, he'd look at her and she can clearly see the support in his eyes and she'd just let out everything like an open tap. There was something about Clark Kent that made her able to tell him things she didn't even tell Chloe. He was somehow able to sneak in behind the walls she had put up to protect herself. And that scared.

After struggling lightly many times to get up, she held out one of her hands indicating that she needed help getting up.

Clark walked towards her and held out one of his hands. Her hand smoothly fit into his like a key in a lock. As Lois prepared herself to lift herself off the floor by pulling on Clark's arm for support, she let out a little yelp when she found herself in Clark's arms as he effortlessly carried her to her bed and sat her down. Their eyes interlocked once again, before they both jerked their heads in the opposite direction and pretended that nothing had just happened.

Clearing her throat Lois began, "Look Smallville, the next time you decide to pull of a stunt like that you'll wake up with a throbbing headache the following week. Are we clear? I'm not Lana."

He just smiled and grabbed the chair in the corner of the room and moved it next to her bed. He realized that her lash at him was just her defense mechanism working trying to throw him from her revealing to him her true feelings. Clark wasn't about to let this slip just because she can't hold back her tongue. This was one of the few, rare times that Clark was able to see that Lois was human as well.

Lois had hoped that through her sudden outburst that Clark would forget the fact that she was about to let him in behind the walls. When he reached for the chair and pulled it closer to the bed she realized that there was no way of getting around it. '_Damn it_.' She thought to herself.

They sat there in silence for a full minute. Lois was hoping that Clark would eventually get bored of waiting and just leave. Clark however knew exactly what Lois was doing and just sat there expectantly. She tried to busy herself with anything she could find, to avoid Clark's piercing gaze. She first straightened out her pillow, then her bed cover. She grabbed one of the magazines and started flicking through it, trying to act interested. Truth be told she had lost interest in the magazine ten minutes after she had discovered it in the first place. It was all junk. The main article was titled _10 ways to keep your man happy for longer. _What irritated her was that each one of those ten ingredients had some sort of sex-appeal to them. 'As if the only way to keep your partner interested in you is by wearing your pants and shirts extremely low amongst other things. If that's all the guy is interested in then he's not worth being with, in the first place.' She thought to herself. She glanced back at Clark to see if he was showing any signs of boredom or other emotions that would indicate he was going to leave soon. She infuriated when he still seemed as calm as ever, and that his blue-green eyes were still waiting for her to open up to him.

"Will you stop that, you're gonna burn a whole straight through me if you keep staring at me like that Smallville!" she yelled.

Clark just chuckled to himself. He knew Lois too well. Sometimes it scared him just how well he knew her. At times he felt he knew her more than he did himself. It also scared him to find just how well Lois could read him too. At times he felt like she knew him better than anyone, including himself.

"Well, I'm waiting."

Letting out a deep breath before she began. "I guess it all started when I was five, and we found out that mom had lung cancer. We went to the hospital every month for the following year, so mom can get her regular check-ups. Every month was worse than the previous, Lucy would be constantly crying with all the tension in the room, the general would be yelling at the doctors calling them incompetent and whatever, but the worst part was mom. Every month she'd become weaker than the month before. Her voice would get lower, her skin would get paler. She was dying right in front of me and there was nothing me nor anybody else could do about it. The last two months were the worst. She became a full-time patient because her condition had gotten so bad. She had all these wires going in and out of her, she looked more like a mother board that a person. Lucy had gotten terrified of coming close to her because she had gotten so cold, the general didn't get any better either. There were times when he refused to look at her because it brought him so much pain. Then one day, the doctor came out and gave daddy the news, and daddy was just silent. He grabbed Lucy and me and just walked out, Lucy was screaming and wailing and I was so scared I didn't know what I was gonna do without mom. The general wasn't just quiet for the whole car ride, from that day on, the only time he spoke was when he gave us orders. I guess the reason to why I hate hospitals is I didn't only lose my mother here, I lost my father as well. And I guess is that every time someone I care about is in here or I'm here I'm afraid that I might lose them or myself as well." She finished softly, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall. She hadn't realized that she had her eyes closed, nor did she realize that halfway through her confession, that Clark had grabbed her hand and was gently stroking the back of it with his thumb.

She opened her eyes, when she was certain that there would be no signs of tears ever threatening to have fallen, only to be met by Clark's warm, comforting blue eyes.

"Lois I promise you, that you're gonna make it out of here." He said with a soft smile, before slowly getting up. As soon as his hand left hers Lois felt a sudden chill flow through her body. As he was about to open the door Lois called out his name.

"Clark." He turned so he could face. "Chloe told me that you were the one who brought me here, and that if it weren't for you, that you guys would probably be burying my ashes in a grave or something, so I just want to say thanks. You always have my back even when I don't ask. You really are a good friend. But if you mention anything that I've said in here to anyone else, well let's just say Elmer Fudd will finely meet the Smallville."

He widened his eyes a little at her threat, before grinning mischievously and answering, "Aye, aye – Sailor." And he walked out of the room. Leaving Lois with a smile of admiration on her face.

When Clark arrived home he found that his mother was just about to serve dinner. The holidays were coming up so his father was officially on vacation. It will be the first time in a long time that they'll be having dinner as a family since the evening of the election results. Over dinner Clark told his parents everything that happened to Baron, how Raya, died and how Kor-El had swooped in and saved him as well.

"Poor Kor-El, I can' imagine how upset he must be feeling at the moment. Not seeing his wife for all these years and then when he finally gets reunited with her she's taken away from him again. He must be really heart-broken."

"Son, did you have any way of contacting him?"

Shaking his head as he answered. "No, he told me to get back to the farm and that he'll meet me there after he's done."

"Done what?" his father asked.

With an embarrassed face on Clark answered "Um, expressing his love to his wife." He replied.

"O, I see." His father answered, his mother having an amused look on her face.

The awkward moment was interrupted by a knock at the door, "I'll get." Clark said, wanting to escape the awkwardness of the room. Martha got up to clear the dishes but was stopped when Jonathon beat her to it, "I'll get it sweetheart, you just relax."

When Clark answered the door he was stunned to see that Kor-El was on the other side.

"Hello Kal-El."


	16. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Clark just stood there, mouth agape and dumbfounded. He couldn't believe he was now face to face with his biological brother. He had dreamed of one day finding someone like himself. But only in his dream did he dare hope that they would be civil. For all the individuals who claimed to be from Krypton before had turned out to be manipulative and inhumane creatures. His own father Jor-El didn't seem that nice of a person from the messages that receives. The only Kryptonian who was nice enough was Raya, and heck he'd only known her a couple of days or so before she died. But know he has the chance not only to meet a fellow Kryptonian, but a fellow family member in the flesh, face to face. No messages from the ship, or voices from the cave or extraterrestrial elements. And that fact alone had left him in awe.

"You know, whoever said that country folk people have the nicest manners obviously haven't met you yet. You gonna let me in? Or you gonna continue to invite flies into your stomach?"

"Clark, son who's at the do- Oh!" Jonathon's expression went from extremely happy, to almost raging in lest time than Clark could blink. He gave Kor-El a menacing look. He still had a hard time believing that any Kryptonian other than Clark aren't evil. The only reason he allowed Raya to dine with them was to show his gratitude for helping his son escape the Phantom Zone.

"Jonathon, Clark who was at the door?" Martha asked before seeing who it was. "Kor-El"

"Mrs. Kent, Senator Kent." He acknowledged.

"Clark where are your manners? Is this any way to treat a guest? Let alone a member of the family. Come in sweetie, come in." She gestured with her hands.

"Thank you." He said as he walked past both Clark and Jonathon. When he realized that Clark wasn't following he turned to face him. "You coming or what? In case you haven't noticed I'm not impressed by your ability to catch flies with your mouth." He said with a slight twinkle in his eye. Martha found that comment quite amusing and let out her own giggle. Jonathon however wasn't amused and continued to eye Kor-El like a hawk studying its prey.

When Clark realized that Kor-El was talking to him he snapped out of his trance. "Oh, u-um sorry." He sheepishly apologized before following his mother, father and brother to the table.

Noticing how Jonathon was eying him, Cevin turned to face him. "Senator Kent, did I walk into the house with the wrong foot?"

"Sorry?" Jonathon asked, obviously confused by the question.

"Well, ever since I stepped into the house you've been giving me this look. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were about to snap and kill. So I was just wandering if you wanted me to go back outside and walk into your house with my left instead of right foot?" He said with a slight smile.

Jonathon was not at all pleased. But both Martha and Clark found it to their liking as Martha let out a slight giggle from the kitchen, and Clark let out a small laugh, only to be silenced by Jonathon with an intimidating glare.

"No. It's just I really don't like you Kryptonians, because all they've ever brought to this family is trouble, so why should I think you're any different? Clark's brother or not. Jor-El alone has brought more strife to this family in months than any other human alive has brought in years. So please tell me why I should even allow you to sit in that chair?"

"Jonathon!"

"Dad"

"No. I want him to answer." Jonathon said in a threatening tone whilst looking at Cevin, who didn't look the least bit fazed by Jonathon's threatening glares, or menacing tone; but answered smoothly.

"Hitler."

"What" Jonathon asked, again confused by Cevin's seemingly irrelevant comments.

"Mussolini, Stallin, Nero, Diocletian. These are all members of your human race. People who have brought pain and suffering to countless lives throughout your timeline. You don't see neither Me, nor my father, nor Kal-El judging an entire nation by the acts of a mere few."

"His name is Clark, and he is different, because he was raised by us. He is our son."

"My mistake of course Clark. Well in that case you can call me Cevin. But your avoiding the point. I didn't make a conclusion that this planet is full of selfish, immoral beings, who care only about themselves based on the acts of a few individuals. So I would appreciate that you wouldn't do the same to us Kryptonians and label us a psychotic murderers based on the acts of a few as well."

"This is completely different!" Jonathon barked.

"Really? Well let's say that these are two completely different scenarios. But isn't your entire campaign based on helping people be the best that they can be? To look beneath the surface of every man or woman's surface and find the goodness within? Do you really mean what you say? Or is that just a catchy way to attract the voters?" Cevin challenged.

"You listen to me, I never say something that I don't believe." Jonathon assured.

"Well then don't I deserve the same chance?" Cevin asked.

"You do… if you were human." At that comment Cevin's eyebrows shot up, surprised by what he had just heard. And for a split second Jonathon could have sworn he could see plain flickering in his eyes.

"Jonathon!"

"Dad!"

Cevin held up his right hand indicating that they should stop the protests. "Does that mean Clark isn't human either? Senator, if you look up the word _human _you find that it's defined as – _to have weaknesses and strengths, to be able to feel varying emotions, to have compassion, to love._ By any definition I am human. Maybe not born on the same planet but still human."

Seeing Cevin's demeanor slightly sadden, Jonathon began to apologize. "Look, I apologize for anything that I may have said. You just have to realize that I'm just trying to protect my family."

"You're a good man senator. Not a lot of people in this world would have hidden such a big thing a secret in order for him to have an ordinary life despite all the odds. I understand your fear. But I can assure you that I'm not here to take Clark away from you. I just want to be apart of his life, answer the questions that you and Mrs. Martha couldn't. Surely you cannot deny me the right to see my own brother." Turning to face Clark. "Only he can."

"Clark sweetie why don't you show Cevin and show him around the farm. It'll give you a chance to catch up. I just need to have a couple of words with your father."

"Sure mom." Clark said with a wide smile. Obviously excited that he is finally going to get to know his brother. Turning to Cevin, he spoke with a smile for the first time since he was at the hospital, "C'mon, follow me." Cevin did as he was told but not before excusing himself from the presence of Martha and Jonathon.

When they were both out the door. Martha slapped her husband across the chest with the towel she was holding in her right hand.

"Ouch! Hey what was that for?" He asked with in a shocked tone.

"You know why. The man has just lost his wife Jonathon, how could you be so insensitive? And on top of everything else you had the nerve to say he wasn't human. How could you say such a thing Jonathon?"

"I'm just trying to protect my family! Every time we meet a Kryptonian, or someone who claims to be one, they've brought nothing with them but trouble. Now I am sorry, but I will not allow that to happen again."

"What happened to the man that I fell in love with? What happened to the man that I married? What happened to my husband? The one who used to say "I prefer to have faith in people." What happened to him, huh?"

"His eyes were opened, by his son, and the people of his race. They have given me absolutely no reason to trust them."

"So you don't trust your own son?"

"You know what I mean."

"Yes I do. And you're right, no previous Kryptonian has ever given us a reason to trust them. But you still gave them the chance to prove otherwise. Now don't you think that Cevin deserves the same chance? And if he does prove to be dangerous, then we'll deal with it the same way we've always dealt with out problems, as a family. C'mon sweetheart, for Clark? What can be so bad if he did have an older brother? At the very least he wouldn't feel like a total outsider."

"What if Cevin tells Clark to leave us, and go with to God knows where? What if he takes our son away from us?"

"That'll be Clark's decision not ours. Beside, Clark would never leave us, Jonathon. He loves as much as we love him."

"You're right, sweetheart." He said as he pulled her towards him, and sat her down on his lap. "I may have acted a little out of place, I'm sorry. But I'm only trying to do what's best for the family." He said as he kissed her hand.

"I know you are dear, I know you are." She said as she rested his head on her chest.

Meanwhile outside on the Kent driveway, the two brothers walked side-by-side in silence. Cevin waiting for Clark to say something, and Clark was both too nervous and excited to think of anything.

"Sorry about my dad, he just protecting his family."

"I know, don't worry about." He said as he stopped and turned to look at Kal-El.

"Well, would you look at you. You know the last time that I saw, I had placed you in mother's arms so that she could kiss you goodbye, before placing you in the ship. You were about this big," He said with his hands a foot apart, "and now you're this giant. My little brother Kal-El is not so little anymore." He finished with a chuckle, and somewhat saddened smile.

Clark was dumbstruck yet again, the magnitude of what his brother had just said, hit him with full force.

"It must have been hard for you." Was all that he could come up with.

"It was hard for mother and father, it wasn't really that hard for me because I was coming with you to Earth, just in a separate ship. What's really hard is that I'm standing here right in front of you and you don't even know who I am. You don't remember me. I was the one who delivered you into the world. The one who showed you Krypton for the very first time. Yet you don't remember, actually, you don't want to remember." He finished as he began walking out towards the fields.

Jogging to catch up to him Clark answered, "Wait what do you mean I don't want to remember, I was one year old, how can I possibly remember what happened back then."

"You're Kryptonian Clark, our brains are a lot more advanced than any ordinary human. But you knew that already, that's why you were able to get such good grades with little effort at all. My guess is you didn't want to remember because you were afraid of what might've happened correct?"

Clark nodded sheepishly.

"Well C.K. let me tell you what really happened. Why you were sent away. Krypton was about to be swallowed up by it's sun. Now Jor-El tried to warn the High Council but they wouldn't hear it. They couldn't comprehend the fact that this great and powerful civilization can be wiped out so easily. So not only did they dismiss Jor-El's claim, but they also forbade him from leaving the planet himself. So Jor-El gave them his word that he would not attempt to leave. But what he didn't say is that he had planned on sending away his wife and only child. You. But, of course, Laura said that she'd die by her husband's side and she wouldn't leave him for anything. But Jor-El said that someone had to go with you to this new planet, he didn't want you to be alone. And that's when I walked in. I hadn't seen nor heard their voices in over a year so as you can imagine we were all very thrilled to have seen each other, unfortunately the circumstance didn't allow for much of a warm welcome. When Jor-El told me what was about to happen, I offered to get us all out, but then he told me that he had given his word to the High Council and that our mother was also staying behind. So we shipped you off to avoid any malfunctions that the aftershock could have caused to the ship, I stayed until it was almost near impossible for take-off before I left. However the aftershock got to my ship and it spiraled way, way off course. And I was knocked out in the process. When I regained consciousness I saw that the ship had taken severe damage, and I also saw that I had entered this planet's Solar System, I was a couple of light years away from Pluto at the time. So I exited the ship, destroyed it with my heat-vision and then made my way to Earth. I found that it was June 12, 1990. At the time I didn't know of a meteor shower having hit Smallville, in fact I only learned of that after the second one hit.

So C.K. now that you know why you were sent here and why I wasn't with you, why don't you tell me about yourself, my ears are open. Tell me everything.

And so Clark did. He told him everything. The first time he lifted the bed over his head, the first time he ran at super-speed. How he got his x-ray vision. Heat-vision, super-hearing and super-breath everything. The time he lost his powers and died. About Jor-El's promise. But what's more he poured out his emotions to him, how he always felt like an outsider. How he wanted so badly to fit in, but was never able to be normal. For the first time in his entire life Clark Kent felt like he wasn't an outsider, because to Cevin, he was as normal as they come. He felt truly at home.

When Clark had finished they found themselves, where the old mill used to be. Turning to face Clark, Cevin spoke. "Hey, how about a race home. First one to the Daily Planet and then back to the farm wins. Deal?"

"Deal! On three. One…" WHOOSH. Clark sped off leaving Cevin with a bemused look on his face.

"You little cheat." Then took off behind him. By the time Clark had reached the Planet, Cevin was on the outskirts of Metropolis.

"This one is mine again." Clark thought to himself as he raced full speed home. As he came closer and closer to the Kent driveway, his enhanced vision, alerted him of someone standing there looking directly at him. As he focused his vision, he realized that it was Cevin!

He came to a stop a couple of feet away from him, as Cevin asked with a grin on his face, "What took you so long, I've been here for a full three seconds."

"How'd you do that?"

"Not all sprinters are as fast as each other, I'm faster than you, deal with it. C'mon don't want you worrying your parents now." He said as he walked up to the front door.

Clark followed him, a big smile on his face. He didn't feel quite so alone anymore.

As Cevin was about to knock, Jonathon opened the door and stepped outside, his wife following him.

"Dad I can explain…" Clark began before he was cut off by his dad.

"Hold it Clark. Cevin, look about what I said inside. A lot of people have tried to tear up this family, and I'm just trying to make sure that it doesn't happen. So I apologize for what I said, I know that it must be tough times right now, having just lost your wife, and all. Believe me I know. So I tell you what, next week is thanksgiving if you're not doing anything why don't you come and have dinner with us. It's nothing fancy it's just a few family and friends who are coming, since you are Clark's brother, that makes you family. So what do you say?"

Looking at Clark, who had a very big smile on his face and then turning back to Jonathon. "Sure, count me in, thank you. Thank you for loving Clark. And if I may ask do you mind if I take him tomorrow out for the day, just spend the time together, brother-to-brother, it's not like we can get hurt you know?" He added with a chuckle.

"Of course you can sweetie" Martha cut-in. "What time will you be here?"

"Well I have some reports that I have to finish for work, in Metropolis. So how about mid-day?"

"Oh, that's fine, where do you work."

"To the outside world, I'm Cevin Klein, owner and founder of El-Flower Shops. To the people with top-security clearance passes, I'm agent Cevin Klein, director of the CIA infiltration and surveillance unit. Tomorrow I just have to fill out the tax files. And I've never killed anyone neither."

"Wait, did you say El Flower Shops. They're the biggest flower shops in the world. I've seen a couple in Metropolis when I go for meetings. They're incredible flowers son!" Jonathon spoke, amazed at Cevin's accomplishment.

"That's right, not only am I from another planet, but I'm also richer than Lex Luthor. So C.K. see ya tomorrow, midday." He said as he walked down the stairs. Turning to face the Kents he gave one final wave before bending his knees and shooting off towards the sky.

"You know something Clark" Jonathon began, "I think I may have misjudged your family." He finished all of them still watching as Cevin disappeared into the night sky.

"Yeah," Clark said "Me too!" he finished, the Kent smile still plastered on his face.


	17. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15:**

She was leaving. Finally! Lois was finally leaving this graveyard people called a hospital. No amount of words will ever describe her hatred towards hospitals. And coming from Lois Lane, that was saying a lot. Yes she was leaving and she was sure that the hospital staff wouldn't be missing her any time soon.

However, she couldn't leave and stay on her own. She'd have to stay with someone who could regularly check up on her during the early hours of the morning and check that she hasn't fallen unconscious in her sleep. And since Chloe's commitment to the planet, means that she'd be at work during early hours of the morning, that left Lois with just one other family, The Kents.

Not that The Kents were bad, far from it. They were the only family she'd ever really known, next to Chloe. She was closer to them than her own father and sister. And had a great amount of respect for them, and love for them. Well maybe just for Mr. and Mrs. Kent, what she felt for Clark couldn't be described as love. She cared for him. She just didn't love him.

The problem with staying at The Kents is that she had come to rely on them too much. It seemed that whenever she was in a jam, the Kents were there to offer her a helping hand. When she got thrown out of Met U, it was the Kents, not her father that offered her shelter. When Lucy came and everyone found out about the type of person she really was, they didn't ask her to leave, in fact they offered her comfort and encouraged her to stay. After her break-up with A.C. it was Clark who comforted her, and when she found out about Graham, it was Mrs. Kent who told her that everyone goes through the wrong guy so that one day they'll be able to know the right one when she sees them. And let's not forget the countless times that Clark had swooped in to save her right in the nick-of-time. Her current situation was proof of that. And it was always Mr. Kent who had given her advice that only a father can, encouraging her to go after her dreams.

Yes, Lois had grown to rely on the Kents too much, and as Lois Lane, daughter of three-star general Samuel Lane, relying on anyone other than yourself was unacceptable. It was a sign of weakness.

That's why she moved to Gotham University. It was far away enough from the Kents, but not that far from Metropolis, so she can drop by or Chloe could drive up almost any time they wanted.

Yet even though she was away for only a couple of weeks, she had missed them dearly. More than she would publically admit to anyone.

She shook herself from those depressing thoughts, for within the hour, Lois would once again be living under the Kent roof and sleeping in…

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

Lois turned to see who was at the door, she was busily collecting her things, and was surprised to see Lana at the door.

"Lana. Hey, come in."

"Lois it's good to see you up and about. What are you doing? Why are you collecting your things?"

"I'm leaving. The doctor said that I would be allowed to be released from this hell-whole, if I could find a suitable guardian or guardians who could meet the required daily check-ups that I should get. The Kent were more than happy to be those guardians. Mr. Kent is on his way now to sign the release papers." Lois said, clearly joyful at the prospect of leaving.

"Oh that's good to hear Lois." Hesitating before continuing. "I just came to see how you were feeling. So I'll see you later." She finished as she turned to walk out the door.

"Lana wait." Lois said, causing Lana to stop at the door and turn to face her. "Not that I don't appreciate you coming here to see me, but I can tell that there's another reason you came to see me." Seeing Lana's hesitation, she continued. "Hey I'm all up for girlfriend chit-chat as much as the next girl." She finished with a smile.

Seeing Lois smile, relaxed her. As she followed Lois and they both sat on her bed.

"So what's up? Let me guess. Tall, dark and bumbling. Am I right?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry to come to you Lois but, I'd usually talk to Chloe, but I just wasn't sure that she was the best person to talk to about this."

"That's okay. You gonna tell me what's going on, or am I gonna have to sit here and guess."

"Well… It's Clark. And I feel that he's hiding something from me."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well the way he keeps disappearing when we're together, and then he somehow miraculously reappears at some sort of emergency. I mean how can he get from one place to another without a car? You have to admit it's pretty weird. And another thing, ever since he came back from the dead, our um… sex-life has been on a stand still. Every time I confront him about it he brushes it off and says it's nothing, but it is. I can feel how much he wants me but he doesn't let me in. And I want to know why?"

"Is it really bad Lana that he goes off to save someone instead of being with you? I mean, I understand your concern and frustration over the fact that you guys haven't been intimate with each other in over two years, I can barely stand next to Oliver, without having the need to jump him. But running off to do the right thing, and save lives. Lana you seriously can't fault for doing that. He's Clark Kent. As annoying, and dorky as he may be, he's always going to have this hero-complex about him. That's what makes him who he is, that's a big part of the reason why you fell in love with him. Because he's always trying to help."

"I know that Lois, it's just that," she sighed. "I just wish he would let me in. I keep waiting for him to get over his insecurities and grow up. I'm tired of waiting to be treated the way I want with him. I don't think I can be with him much longer."

"What! Lana, you seriously can't believe what you're saying. This is Clark Kent, the love of your life we're talking about here."

Narrowing here eyes, and her tone. "If he really is the love of my life, then why doesn't he let me in?" she asked coldly.

"Look, Lana I don't know what's going on between the two of you. But I know for a fact, that if I was ever to end up someday with a guy, who was as half as honorable as Clark, I'd consider myself the luckiest girl in the world." She finished with a sympathetic smile. "And if this is really bothering you, you should tell him what you just told me. I'm sure he'd listen. Smallville's a pretty good listener when he wants to be." She added lightly, and encouragingly.

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

Both heads turned to see Jonathon Kent standing at the door.

"Mr. Kent" Lois said as she got up to greet the man that would take her to her temporary home.

"Hey Lois, hey Lana."

"Hi Mr. Kent." She replied.

"You girls look like you were having a serious conversation, should I wait outside until you finish up?"

"No! No, that's okay, I was just dropping by to see Lois, and ask for her advice on something. I was just leaving. Is Clark home?"

"Clark, um, yeah he's home but…"

"Okay thanks, I need to go talk to him. Bye. Lois thanks for listening, and I'm glad you're feeling better, bye." She said as she hurried out the door.

"Bye Lana." Lois called after her, then looked at Mr. Kent.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"I get the feeling that you'll be finding out soon enough." She replied. "C'mon Mr. Kent, deliver me from this nightmare." She said as she linked her arm in his.

"Yes ma'am." He answered with a smile as he picked up her bag, and led her towards the receptionist, to fill out the release papers.


	18. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Clark woke up that morning later than he usually would. And he really wasn't surprised by it either. He found himself awake countless times during the night just staring at the ceiling for mere seconds before realizing that he was awake. Then he would glance at his clock and see the time. And every time he was disappointed to see that time had only advanced a half-hour since the last time he checked. He couldn't help it. He was just so excited that he was finally going to get to know a member of his own family. Not that he didn't consider Martha and Jonathon Kent family, he couldn't have asked for, nor would he exchange his parents for anything else in the world. They were perfect. But at last he was going to have someone in his family who actually knows what to do, the next time a new ability pops up. Or someone who knew what it felt like to be called simple, ordinary, weak, insignificant. When in fact you can probably do any task on this planet better than anyone. Yes at last, today is the day, he will feel normal.

There was something else on his mind though. When he'd gotten dressed and ready for breakfast, he was going to ask his parents if it was possible for Cevin to stay on the farm with them. Technically he was a family member as well so why shouldn't he?

He was brought out of his internal debate by the smell of his mother's delicious blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs.

_Well I better get down in a hurry before the food gets cold. _He thought to himself.

When he got downstairs he was surprised and excited to see his mom making the couch ready to be slept on and his dad nowhere in sight; which wouldn't be an odd thing if there was no breakfast.

"Morning mom. Where's dad?" he said as he walked over to his mother and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and headed towards the kitchen."

"Good morning sweetheart. Your dad went to the hospital."

"Is he alright?"

"O he's fine sweetie, he just to pick up Lois."

"Lois?"

"Mmm-hmm" his mother replied nodding her head. "The doctor said that Lois would be allowed to get released from the hospital, if she found a place where suitable guardians would be able to regularly check-up on her during early hours of the morning. She asked your father and I if she was allowed to stay with us for a couple of weeks. Could you go grab a spare pillow for yourself sweetie. Thanks."

"What?"

"Now Clark, I know your frustrated at being kicked out of your own bed again, but just try to think of Lois. You said yourself that you felt really torn up when you thought she died." She said as she walked off to do the laundry.

"No, mom it's not that." He said as he followed her. "Lois can't stay here." He said firmly, which made Martha turn sharply.

"And why not?"

"Because, she isn't family."

Martha gasped. "Clark Kent, how could you say that? You of all people should know that just because you're not blood related, doesn't mean that you're not family. Lois is as much a part of this family as you, your father and I. I'm surprised that with everything that she's been through with this family you can even think that. What's gotten into you?"

"I know mom, I'm sorry. It's just that," letting out a sigh. "What about Cevin?"

"Cevin? What about him, you two are going out today aren't you?"

"Yeah we are and I can't wait, it's just that I was hoping that Cevin would be able to stay with us at the farm. I didn't mean to trivialize Lois' importance. I know how much she means to both you and dad. I care about her too."

_More than you think._ She thought to herself.

"Clark, I know that you're very excited at finally meeting someone who knows exactly what it's like to be a little different," she said with a smile, causing Clark to grin like a child, "but honey, Lois is our priority now, she's the one that needs our help, and from what Cevin has told us, it's not like he's wandering the streets looking for a place to live."

He was about to respond when they heard knocking on the front door.

Clark turned to his mother with a questioning expression on his face.

"Well don't keep your brother waiting." She said encouragingly, with a twinkle in her eye.

"He's early. He said he'd be here at noon."

"Well maybe he finished whatever he had to do early. Clark quite being rude and open the door." She said giving her son a little push towards the door.

After regaining his balance, he ran to the door as a child would when running to meet Santa Clause. Stopping briefly at the door to compose himself, before excitedly swinging it open.

"He-… Lana?" shocked to see his girlfriend standing in front of him, and a little disappointed.

"Hi Clark." She said, and stood on her toes to give him a quick hello kiss.

"Hi, um, Lana. What are you doing here?"

"Lana, hi there sweetie. It's good to see you."

"You too Mrs. Kent."

"Clark where are your manners, Lana would you like to come in and have some breakfast. You'll have to excuse my son, he woke up on the rude side of his bed today."

Lana let out a soft giggle, "No thanks Mrs. Kent, I just came here to talk to Clark, is it alright to go to the barn? I have some things to that I want to discuss with Clark."

"Yeah sure. Clark, I'll leave the food in the fridge for you. You can heat it up after."

"Thanks, mom." He said as both he and Lana walked off to the barn together.

They walked in silence, and Lana realized that Clark was acting very strange around her, it was as if his mind was else. She gently slid her hand into his hoping to snap him out of his current trance.

It didn't work. He was still walking as if he were a zombie. This bothered her. The fact that something else had his attention, and something that she didn't know what had his attention.

A million things were go through Clark's mind. Most had to with Cevin. He wandered where he and Cevin were gonna go. How they'd get there. Car? Plane? Maybe Cevin would just fly them. He also wanted to go see Chloe. To find out what organizations he's involved in. He'd heard of El Flower Shops, and vaguely of its mysterious CEO. But he was never in the headlines nor did anyone have a name to him. Yep he'd definitely go see Chloe after Lana left. And strangely enough, he thought about Lois, how scared and vulnerable she looked the night before. It was rare when Lois opened up and let him in behind her securely guarded walls, but when she did he wanted nothing more than to envelope her in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be all right. And he'd do it if was sure that she wouldn't take a swing at him and say something along the lines of _Smallville don't you ever do that again_. He started to smile, no matter what the situation she was always able to make him smile.

As they reached the top of the barn stairs, Lana turned to face Clark to see him smiling.

"What are you smiling at Clark?"

"Huh, oh, nothing, what is it that you wanted to talk about Lana?"

She was furious, but didn't show it. She hated when it was so obvious that something was on his mind yet still refused to tell her. She'd drop it however, for now.

"Well, I was hoping we could have a couples day out. Have a nice a little picnic, maybe share a romantic dance and then," she said as she moved seductively in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "we can either go skinny-dipping at crater lake or," inching her face closer to his and lowering her voice to emphasize her point "Chloe went back to Metropolis earlier in the morning, that means I've got the apartment above the Talon all, - to, -my,- self. But I'm willing to share it with you."

Clark smiled shyly, but then remembered what he was going to do today, and pushed her away from him.

"Lana, I'm, ah, I'm sorry. But I can't I already had plans for today."

She was still facing the barn wall, when both her expression and tone, changed form one of seduction, to one of outright rage.

Turning to face him, "Plans huh? With who?" she asked in a cold tone.

"My, my brother."

"Brother? Clark you don't have a brother."

"I thought I didn't but it turns out I have and he's been looking for me all this time, he's gonna be here around mid-day and then just have a guys day out. I'm really sorry Lana, but you know how exciting it can be to someone who you're biologically related to."

"Clark I'm getting tired of this. Of us and I was hop—"

"Lana, I promise you that we'll talk as soon as I get back but right now I have to get ready to leave I'm sorry." He said as he walked off and down the stairs.

"Me too." She said to herself, as a tear slid down her face.


	19. Chapter 17

Chloe was busy at her computer at the Daily Planet. She was trying to find out any information on the CIA agent that the Luthors have hired to spy on Clark. But she found nothing. No secret project, no special persons list. Nothing.

In frustration she sighed and began to slowly massage her temples, as she closed her eyes.

She let out a surprised yelp when she felt someone's hands on her shoulders. She relaxed however, when the hands of the stranger started to massage her shoulders, before lowering themselves onto her back.

"So how's my girl?" Asked Jimmy.

"Stressed out, frustrated and – yeah that feels good." She said as she turned to face Jimmy in her chair.

"So what ya workin on?" he asked.

"Lois just asked for my help to research Lex's latest project. But I've had no such luck. There are no scheduled meetings, no recently added mysterious projects. He must have whatever it is he's working on all on hard-copy, because there's nothing on his computer." She let out a frustrated sigh of defeat.

"I know just what you need," Jimmy said as he inched closer to her face and kissed her softly.

Their lips stayed entwined for a while before they were both startled by the clearing of someone's throat.

As they both jumped back and looked to see who the culprit was, the found Clark sitting on a nearby desk with a smug expression on his face.

"Aren't you two still on the clock?"

"Hey C.K." Jimmy said, looking very flushed and embarrassed. Turning to face Chloe, "I'll see you at lunch?"

She nodded her head as she watched her boyfriend walk away. She sat back down at her desk, too embarrassed to face Clark, and her smile still as bright as it was only a few moments ago.

Sliding off the desk he walked over to her and stood by her side. "It's good to see you this happy Chloe."

"Thanks Clark, but we both know that you didn't come all the way down here just to comment on my happiness, so what's the real reason you're here?"

"Actually I wanted to ask you if you could pull up any details on Cevin Klein, see if he has any skeleton's in the closet?"

"Which one?"

He looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Clark the name Kevin Klein is very popular in the U.S. so I'm afraid that you're gonna have to be a little more specific. Did you mean Kevin Klein the actor, the hockey player…"

"The billionaire!"

With a confused expression on her face she did as she was told.

"Ah, here we go, apparently billionaire Kevin Klein spells his name with a C, not K. Okay biography. That's strange there's only a short paragraph."

"What does it say?" he asked.

"Not much really, the mysterious founder and CEO of El-Flower shops, refuses to make public appearances and attend any charity balls or dinners. Only ever appearing at three fundraising dinner hosted by Wayne Enterprises and Queen Industries. Only Mr. Wayne and Mr. Queen, along with the employees of his company know what he looks like. Tends to keep a low-profile, driving an average car (details of which are unknown) and resides in one of the pent-houses in a hotel building in Washington, owned by Queen Industries."

"What? That's it?"

"I told you it doesn't say much. Why the sudden interest in this guy anyway."

Looking at his watch he realized that he'd better hurry-back home to meet Cevin, "No reason, I'll see you around Chloe." And with that he walked out of the office and super-sped home.


	20. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18:**

As Clark stepped walked through the back door of his house, he saw his mother cooking up a meal in the kitchen.

"Hey mom, is Cevin here yet?"

"No, not yet sweetie but I think your dad and Lois have just pulled up, could you go help him out with her luggage, I don't want him to do any heavy lifting."

"Luggage? Mom, how long is Lois gonna be staying here anyway?"

"Clark! Lois will be staying here for as long as it takes her to get back on her own two feet!" she answered firmly, for the person who has become so much like the daughter she never had.

"I'm sorry." He said as he planted a kiss on her cheek and walked out the door to find his father helping Lois out of the truck. As he was doing so, Clark saw that Lois was saying something to Jonathon. Had he been an ordinary human he wouldn't have been able to hear what she was saying, but of course he wasn't. Not that he needed to eavesdrop to know what Lois was saying. He guessed that it was something along the lines of _I could do it myself_.

Sure enough he was right.

"Mr. Kent, not that I don't appreciate your help or anything, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. You and Mrs. Kent will never know how much I appreciate getting me out of the hospital as well as everything else you've done, but _Senator _I'm not an invalid and perfectly capable of getting out and walking by myself see? Ahh!" she yelped as she lost her footing and was about to crash into the ground, if it wasn't for Jonathon standing right next to her who prevented her from losing the battle with gravity.

Clark was surprised that he was about to go into super speed, just to stop her from falling. It was then that he realized how fragile she really is. The guilt of his earlier words had chosen that moment to hit him at full force. His heart felt like it was going to explode, and he didn't have the strength to raise his head anymore, let alone the guts to look Lois in the eye.

He continued his approach toward them. Slowly, very slowly. Hoping that Lois wouldn't see him.

Clark had no-such luck, as soon as she had steadied herself, she looked up to find Clark headed in her direction. Taking ginger-steps and head sunk low. Her first reaction to his seemingly depressed state is that he and Lana had split! Her heart, for some unknowing reason, ached for him. She wanted to walk up to him and cradle him in her arms. After all, banter and jokes aside he was her best friend. Next to Chloe of course!

When he looked up at her, she noticed that he had no tears in his eyes, and that he a shy, almost guilty, smile on his face. When she looked deeper into his eyes she realized that there were no hints that he'd been depressed earlier. They only radiated what appeared to be genuine happiness at seeing her despite the fact that they both knew that she would be kicking him out of his own room again.

"Hey Smallville, looks like I'm about to invade your personal space again." She said teasingly.

He looked up at her and gave a genuine smile, "I'm just glad to see that you're alright Lois. Hey dad, let me take that for you." He said as he reached out and took Lois' suite case from his father.

"Thanks son, are you all set to leave?"

"Yeah, he should be here any minute, I'm gonna take this up to my… I mean Lois' room," he said with a twinkle in his eye as he looked at Lois, who smiled back in return, "then hopefully he'll be here, it's noon."

"Sounds good."

As they walked towards the house the front door burst open, revealing a very excited Shelby running to welcome the new arrival, followed by Lois' customary sneezes.

"Oh, I was hoping I wouldn't have to run into you, you dumb mutt," she said annoyingly as she continued her sneezes, whilst Clark grinned and Mr. Kent roared with laughter. As they got closer to the door, Mrs. Kent came out and the two women embraced in a long hug.

"Lois sweetie, I'm so glad that you're going to be staying with us. Now I want you to head upstairs, shower, and hop straight into bed, you'll be having all meals from there."

"But Mrs. Kent…"

"No buts Lois, Senator's wife's orders." She said jokingly.

"Sure thing Mrs. Kent."

Turning towards the front door, they all walked in to the big yellow house, Clark was first, as he was in a hurry, and a little nervous about spending the day with his brother. Followed by the rest of the family, all of them failed to notice the small, black car, making its way smoothly up the driveway.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 19:**

After making sure that everything in his, now Lois' room was in order, he made his way slowly down the stairs, just as there was a knock on the door.

Jonathon, being the closest made his to the door and opened it, revealing none other than Cevin Klein on the other side of the door. Jonathon was temporarily dazed at how similar he and Cevin's physical appearances were. Besides the hair, Cevin's was cut neatly and very slick, and his skin was a beautiful golden tan, and his eyes that were the most unique pair of hazel eyes he had ever seen, they both looked remarkably alike. Although it from the looks of things Cevin wasn't quite as bulky as Clark, but definitely more toned. His fine black suite wrapped around his immaculate frame as thought it were just another layer of skin. Never had Jonathon seen a suite fit a man in such a way, it was amazing.

"Good afternoon Senator." He said in a smooth, confident voice, as Jonathon opened the door.

"Hello Cevin, Clark's been expecting you." Shaking his hand before allowing Cevin passage into his home. When they arrived to the dining room, Martha popped out of the kitchen to greet her latest guest.

"Cevin sweetie, it's so good to see you. How are you today?" regretting asking the question almost immediately as for a brief moment she saw the sadness build up in his eye as he lost direct eye contact with hers before answering in a low, soft, voice.

"As well as can be expected." Martha had realized that her hands were slowly spread out towards him as if prepared to envelope him in a comforting hug. For a moment she thought that it was Clark who was standing in front of her, and had to struggle with her hands who seemed to have a mind of their own, a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Cevin who smiled inwardly.

"Actually Mrs. Martha, I have something for you," he started as he reached his hand into his blazer pocket, pulling out the fullest red-orange colored flower she had ever seen, and it's scent was divine. Hitting you in an instant yet never settling, a strong yet sweet smell.

"Oh thank you really shouldn't have." She said as she reached forward and grabbed it from him, inhaling it's scent as she brought it closer to her nose. "What's it called?"

"That's actually the reason why I wanted to show this flower." At this both Martha, and Jonathon, (who by that time had taken his place next to his wife admiring this peculiar flower in like manner to his wife), looked up at him curiously.

"You see, this particular flower that you know hold in your hand, is unlike any other flower in the world. It's a long and complicated story but basically this flower is foreign to the Earth, and pretty much the entire universe. This is the first ever flower to be bred from scratch. Again a long story but basically, this flower first blossomed two months ago, and has been sitting on my desk ever since. The reason for that is that I couldn't figure out a name that does it justice. I needed a name that could describe this flower without words. Something that says to people who see it and breathe it, 'I am strong yet sweet, with a fiery spirit.' The moment I laid eyes on you Mrs. Martha I saw my flower. So I was wandering with your permission of course, if I may name this breed of flower's, Martha's Blossom?"

"Oh gosh, I – I don't know what to say, except that I'd be honored…. thank you dear."

Cevin nods his head slightly before asking in a light-tone "So, where is Ka- I mean Clark?"

"He should be down soon." Replied Martha.

"I'll call him." Jonathon said, walking towards the stairs before calling out, "Clark, c'mon down son, it rude to keep your guests waiting."

No sooner than Jonathon had finished calling him, had Clark super-sped down the stairs and walked towards his brother, "Sorry," he began, "just making sure that everything is alright with Lois." He explained.

Cevin was just staring blankly at Clark for a moment, as if he was shocked by something he was seeing, "I thought I told you to be ready at midday, why aren't you dressed yet?" Asked a perplexed Cevin.

"I am ready. See?" Clark spread his hands out, hoping that the gesture would further emphasize his claim.

"You are going to be touring the world in plaid?"

Clark nodded, "What's wrong with that?"

"Oh nothing, if you don't mind being looked at like you were from another planet." Cevin joked and Martha smiled even Jonathon let out a light chuckle as well.

"Well we better get going because it looks like we'll have to make a quick pit stop home and pick you out something decent to were." Turning to face Jonathon and Martha, "Senator, Mrs. Kent, it was a pleasure seeing you both again." He said as he bowed his head slightly. "He'll be home by ten, local time."

"You too." The elderly Kents replied at the same time.

"Bye mom, bye dad." Clark said as he followed his brother out the door.

"Bye son, have fun, and be careful."

"It's not like anything can hurt us dad."

"That's not what I'm telling you to be careful about."

"You don't need to worry Senator, no one will see us doing anything _extra_-ordinary." He said with wink.

"Clark sweetie, can I see you for a moment please?"

"Go ahead I'll wait for you in the car." Cevin said, as he opened the door and started the engine to his car.

When the three Kents were back inside the house again, Clark turned to face his mother, "What's up mom?"

"Sweetie I know that you're very excited about spending the day with your brother and all, and I want you to have a good time. But at the same time dear, try to remember that he has just lost his wife yesterday, so try to be a little comforting if you can. Okay sweetie?"

Clark nodded.

"Good, now go on and enjoy yourself." She said with a cheeky smile that matched Clark's.

As he ran out to the driveway, he began to unconsciously slow down as he took note of Cevin's car. It wasn't a billionaire's car. Not a Porsche, or Ferrari, or Mercedes, it was just a Ford 500. Whilst it was sparkling new, it still couldn't have been more than fifty thousand dollars.

_I thought this guy was a billionaire. _He thought to himself, however he couldn't reminisce in his thoughts for long as the sound of Cevin's horn snapped him back to reality.

As Clark opened the door and sat in the passenger seat, the first thing he noticed was the smell of the car. It still had that new-car smell that instantly relaxes you. He also noticed that the car was spot less; there were no food wrappings or empty soda cans lying around. No stray strands of hay or grass could be seen, or blotches of mud. Heck, there wasn't even so much the slightest speck of dust anywhere. He hadn't been in a vehicle this clean since the last time he rode in Lex's Porsche, and even that wasn't as sparkling clear as this.

His train of thought was abruptly halted by the sound of Cevin's tires skidding against the gravel road, as they made their way up the long dirt path of the Kent farm driveway.

Well, this is it. He thought to himself. He was finally going to have his first encounter with someone who was his own flesh and blood. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel alone in the world anymore. Strange as it may have seemed, considering that technically, he still didn't really know his brother. But he had a hunch. That finally he truly had a family he belonged to. This felt right. This felt, normal. A small, goofy smile started to form on his lips as the thought played over in his mind.

Five minutes after they had left the Kent farm, Cevin brought the car to a smooth stop.

"Get out." He said in a very calm and smooth tone. It wasn't an order, yet at the same time Clark knew he wasn't asking him either. So he just did as Cevin said and got out of the car, and closed the door.

"What's wrong?" asked a confused Clark.

But he got no response from Cevin. Instead he reached inside the blazer jacket, and pulled out a small, pentagonal-shaped crystalline disc. He then aimed the disc at the car. Instantly, white glow emanated from the disc, followed by a multitude of fine blue rays. At first Clark thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But as he blinked and shook his head lightly and looked again, he found that what he saw was actually happening. But he never expected what happened next to occur. As the rays shot at the car, Clark noticed the car began to turn hazy, and that it also seemed to be shrinking. As it shrank, the rays appeared to suck the car towards the crystal, but it did so in an un-orthodox manner. If what was happening at all could be called orthodox. Instead of the front being sucked in first and then followed by the rest of the body of the car, or the back first. The car seemed to bend towards the crystal in a boomerang like fashion, so that the first to be sucked up was the middle of the car, followed suit by the rest of it. The process was completed and the crystal gave a final golden glow to confirm this before returning to its original manner.

As Clark stood dumbstruck at what had just happened, Cevin slipped the crystal back into his blazer pocket and looked at Clark for the first time since they had left the farm.

"You didn't really think we'd be taking a car the whole way did you?" He asked with an amused twinkle in his eye.

"We'd never get anywhere if he did." He finished.

"So how are we going to get where ever it is that you had in mind?"

"The only way to travel." Cevin responded in a soft voice, as he walked up to Clark and held him by the waist. Before Clark knew what was going on, he found himself rocketing towards the clouds.

They were flying.


End file.
